Neko No Triad
by Chibi no Curse
Summary: When the APTX-4869 malfunctions and leaves him as a kitten, Shinichi panics and ends up in Ekoda. Resident detective Hakuba Sagaru finds him and he winds up as his pet. Things don't go as smoothly as they should, really. But what else could you expect?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Prologue_

Shinichi ran through the night streets, legs aching and wind rushing through his hair. His blue eyes were wide in terror, panic evident in his actions. Swerving out of the way of an oncoming car, mostly by reflex, he stumbled over the asphalt and, tumbling head over paws, collapsed in a puddle. He struggled to stand up, fur drenched and filthy. As he stumbled to his feet, he caught sight of his reflection once again. Catching sight of the feline appendages and form again, he drew back, hackles raising. Disbelieving cerulean eyes glanced around wildly, feline ears twitching and tail lashing in horror. Once again, the instinctual command of panic and flight or fight flashed across his mind and he tore off into the night.

Tap-tap-tap, Bam! The dark chocolate kitten abruptly crashed into a set of legs and tumbled back from the recoil. The owner of the legs stepped back in shock, shouting in surprise. Dazed, Shinichi attempted to pull himself back up – accursed paws! – and failed, falling in tangle of paws and distressed kitten.

Hakuba was having a bad day. He had woken up late and had to run to school without breakfast. Shortly after arriving, Kaito had dyed his hair neon green and set off a glitter bomb in his desk. Katio had then looked up Aoko's skirt, which led to her chasing the resident magician while wielding a mop. While in front of his desk, Aoko swung her mop at the same time Kaito leaped up into the air. This resulted in Hakuba being whacked across the face by said mop enough to knock him out of his desk. The two had apologized profusely, but Kaito's stifled snickers were infuriating.

After school, he had walked home and, as soon as he entered his kitchen, realized that he needed to buy groceries. He had to run to the nearest grocery store, which was a couple miles away. When the cashier kept giving him odd looks while he was checking out, it occurred to him that he had forgotten to wash the green dye out of his hair.

Hakuba had promptly rushed out of the store, face flaming red, and halfway to his house, it started pouring rain out of nowhere. The detective had run another mile and had just found shelter when the rain suddenly stopped. Staring at the sky, Hakuba decided to give in and do as Inspecter Nakamori did: curse using every expletive known to man – plus a few more (Yay invention!).

It was around ten o'clock when he finally managed to make it back to his house. As he walked to the gate of his house, something slammed into his legs – most likely bruising them – and nearly bowled him over. Hakuba shouted in surprise and glared at the culprit, ready to yell at whatever it was.

He was not, however, prepared to be faced with a rather, dare he say,_ cute_ kitten mewing in distress at the tangled mess it was in. Even though it was rather filthy and wet, the kitten's bright blue eyes compensated with its "cuddle me!" expression. Despite himself, Hakuba found himself picking up the small feline and carrying it into his house.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter One_

Shinichi squirmed in his seat. His ears twitched restlessly, while his tail spasmed every few seconds. This was awkward! Some random stranger had just picked him up off the streets, muttering something about kittens being too cute for their own good and had taken him into his house. Being in the home of a stranger had been bad enough, but they had the nerve to decide to give him a bath. Indecent jerk.

At least he had been a cat instead of a human at the time.

Anyway, said indecent jerk was current digging in his refrigerator, looking for something feline-friendly for Shinichi to eat. Something like fish or milk. Shinichi mentally gagged. If he had to eat that kind of stuff for the rest of forced feline state, he would most likely end up committing suicide. Then again, considering his current form, standard suicide wouldn't work out that well. Especially since he didn't have opposable thumbs. Maybe he could die by choking on fish bones.

During Shinichi's mental thoughts on suicide techniques, Hakuba had poured a saucer of milk for the stray kitten (Noooo!) and put it on the kitchen table. The detective lifted the teen-turned-kitten off of the chair and gently placed it on the counter next to the saucer. Oddly enough, it appeared that the cat was glaring at the milk in what seemed to be disdain and annoyance. Weren't cats supposed to like milk?

Eventually, the kitten took a tentative step forward and lapped at the milk. Apparently, it found the milk to be at an acceptable standard and grudgingly began to consume the dairy product. Hakuba sighed and reached forward to scratch the kitten behind its ears.

"I suppose I should name you, as it seems that you probably don't have a home." Hakuba stated and the kitten looked up from its milk at him with a baleful expression that implied its thoughts of No, _duh_. Of course I don't have a home. Could cats even pull off that kind of thing?

Shinichi sat on the counter, looking as disbelieving as a cat was capable of. This guy wanted to name him? (He already had a name, thankyouverymuch.) But his disbelief was mostly fueled by the muttering he was hearing. He had a hawk named Watson? And he was considering naming him, a _male_ kitten, Mary Russell? He was a Sherlock Holmes fan, but even this was a little too over the top. He shuddered slightly when he heard the questioning suggestion "Irene Addler, maybe? But then again..."

Hakuba abruptly straightened. "Russell it is, then!"

Russell? He felt like crying. Out of all the people in the world to find him, it had to be a deranged, mental, over-the-top Sherlock Holmes fan. At least he had omitted the "Mary". There was no doubt in his mind that he definitely would have jumped out of the window and run screaming for the hills if this guy wascrazy enough to do that.

Hakuba scooped up the newly-named "Russell" – who was trying to furtively to escape – and carried him to his room.

Hakuba woke up the next morning to the alarm blaring in his ear and an obviously freaked-out kitten yowling in shock and clinging to the ceiling lamp. How it had got up there, he would never know, but it vaguely reminded him of Kuroba.

Speaking of which, wasn't today Wednesday?

Hakuba sat bolt upright in bed. Crap, he had school today! The detective sped off, going through his morning routine so fast, Kid would have been jealous. Grabbing his backpack off of the floor and running out the door, Hakuba failed to notice the dizzy kitten sprawled upside-down in the front pouch of his bag, where it had fallen down into from the ceiling.

Hakuba skidded to stop in front of his classroom door and, realized he had another minute, straightened out his uniform and calmly walked into the classroom.

Chaos reigned and glitter bombs went off, showering everyone in its range with glitter and paint. Students were sporting crazily colored hair and confetti was everywhere. Apparently Kaito had decided to start his pranks a little earlier than usual. Hakuba exhaled and slumped, a sweatdrop sliding down that back of his head, and shuffled to his desk. Upon taking his notebook out and reaching into his bag for a pencil, his hand clasped around something furry and warm.

"KUROBA!"

Hakuba slammed his hands down on his desk, face red with fury. All movement ceased, the glitter bombs strangely freezing mid-explosion, as the students froze and turned towards the enraged detective.

Deceitfully calm, a vein throbbing in his temple, Hakuba questioned the resident magician. "What did you put in my bag?"

Said magician glanced at him in confusion.

"I didn't put anything in your bag. Didn't you just get here?"

"And what does that have to do with anything, Kuroba?" Hakuba seethed.

Kaito deadpanned, "So when would I have had the chance to do anything to your bag?"

"...!"

Hakuba opened and closed his mouth, looking all for the world like a fish, gaping as he tried to come up with a valid response.

Suddenly, the flap of his backpack shifted, and a familiar kitten came out, mewing in indignation at being groped. The room was silent.

"It's so cute!"

The unanimous squealing of most of the females in the class nearly deafened Hakuba as he was nearly bowled over by the girls swarming forward to cuddle and coo over the bewildered kitten. When the kitten finally registered the oncoming crowd of girls, it shrieked in terror and ran to hide behind one of the male students.

Which, ironically, was none other than Kuroba Kaito, self-proclaimed magician extraordinaire.

Shinichi, now christened Russell, cowered behind one of the students. (What? Random swarms of girls were scary when you were this size!) He squeaked in surprise when he was scooped up and placed on one of the desks. When he turned around to glare at his assailant, he froze in alarm when he saw the student's face, which was eerily identical to his face (when he was human), although the teen had overly messy hair (It's called a comb. Use it.). Shinichi was shaken out of his stupor when another set of hands picked him up off of the desk.

"Little thief, be careful in your heist; I suggest that you avoid the catnip." The owner of the hands, Koizumi Akako, reprimanded the kitten.

"Oy, stop with the crazy prophecies, you witch!" Kaito waved his hand flippantly at the assumed witch.

Akako turned her head with a "hmph" of indifference and placed the kitten back on the desk, but not before fixing it with a "I know something you don't" look.

_She scares me_. Shinichi shuddered and scooted away as far as possible from the deranged witch lady. He tried to pretend that maybe she was just a little screwy in the head, but her all-knowing leer certainly didn't convince him of her sanity. The mental image of her chanting something obscene while sacrificing something to Lucifer wasn't particularly helping either.

The day after after Russell's impromptu appearance at school, Hakuba had been immediately bombarded with questions about when and where he got his cat from and if he would please,_ please_ bring the cute little kitten back to school again.

He had answered all questions with a firm "NO." But with a little convincing and a few not-so-subtle threats, Hakuba found himself carrying the inquisitive kitten back into the classroom.

"Why am I doing this again?" Hakuba asked the kitten, not expecting a response. The kitten simply stared at him with a deadpan look, his eyes clearly stating "Because you are an idiot."

"..."

Hakuba slamed his head against the nearest wall. He was spending way too much time around Kuroba, if his attempts to predict the kitten's thoughts were any sign of it.

Russell simply tilted his head and looked at him in amusement.

Shinichi yawned and stretched, popping the kinks his back. That was a nice nap. He froze in mid-stretch, realizing that there were more than a few pairs of eyes watching him. He turned, sapphire eyes widening and turning round with horror when he was faced with half of the stranger's class – whose name he now realized was Hakuba – staring at him and aww'ing at his cute display.

This was an invasion of privacy! Stop looking at me! Shinichi mentally cried and hid in a corner. Stalkers.

Hakuba glanced at Russell in amusement, temporarily allowing a few chuckles to escape, as the kitten freaked and tried to curl into a ball and shrink in on itself. This, however, only seemed to increase the "kawaii!" factor and drew more people to the crowd. Eventually, Hakuba took pity on the kitten, who seemed about to go catatonic, and reached towards Russell to pick him up. Instead, smoke exploded, enveloping the group and hiding the kitten from view. When the smoke cleared, Russell was seated in the lap of one Kuroba Kaito and looking completely mortified.

Hakuba could understand why. He felt mortified too.

The fur at the top of the kitten's head had been dyed and altered with gel to resemble the a certain detective's hair and was dressed in a mini version of the school's uniform.

Russell decided to pass judgment and promptly sank his claws in the magician's face.

* * *

"That cat of yours is evil!" Kaito squawked while waving his arms about wildly, resembling a terrified bird that had no idea what to do about the evil person shaking its cage.

Hakuba snorted in contempt.

"It's your fault for provoking Russell."

Russell accented this with an angry mewl of agreement and a heated glare. The gel still wouldn't come out!

Kaito returned the glare with equal force back at the kitten. Which, resulted in Aoko conking Kaito over the head with her mop. A dramatically garbled noise of pain left his lips as he clutched his head and turned a wounded look over on Aoko.

"How could you?" Crocodile tears threatened to escape from his eyes.

"You were being mean to the poor defenseless kitten!" Aoko snapped back at him, picking up Russell cuddling the cat to her bosom.

Urk! Shinichi convulsed and made a strangled noise. The jumbled mass of thoughts in his brain were along the lines of "Gyuk..." (He was pretty sure that some of his brain cells had just fried) and he breifly wondered if cats could have nosebleeds.(What? He was a healthy teenage boy.)

Kaito eyed the cat warily.

It wasn't the fact that the cat had clawed him not five minutes ago (although that was part of it) but was actually the kitten's eyes. Those wide cerulean eyes that seemed to stare into your soul were unnaturally intelligent; they almost seemed to be human. And the kitten's reactions were also oddly off. For example, the way the cat responded around Hakuba. The facial expressions the kitten made were something that he would have expected to see on another person's face. The glares, deadpan looks, and how Russell seemed to understand everything that was going around him. He noticed things that most people wouldn't have seen. Even the cat's gait hinted at something else: the feline was seemed to be normally used to walking on two legs instead of four.

The kitten's somewhat embarrassed visage as it was squashed into Aoko's bosom only served to solidify his theory.

**A/N **

I certainly didn't expect to have such a positive response! Especially to have responses a single day after I posted the prologue. Thank you! My ego is starting to inflate... (pokes with stick) Updates will show up at least once a month, depending on my inspiration at the time.

I'm sure some of you have noticed Shinichi's OOCness in the story so far. But considering that he's been poisoned, turned into a cat, and has been whacked over the back of the head with a metal pipe (concussion maybe?), I wouldn't expect him to be in the best mental condition. As of this point in the story, he's running on instincts and what little mental awareness he has left. He'll eventually recover, but his personality won't be the same. Being turned into a cat does that to you.

As for the name "Russell", this is because I wanted to be unique and not use "Conan" or "Sherlock" or something like that. Plus, I can't even picture a cat being named "Sherlock".


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Two_

A week had passed since Hakuba had found Russell. He had actually become rather fond of the kitten and had started to bring him to KID heists. Oddly enough, the cat seemed to be rather useful during the heists and, in his opinion, was probably more competent at capturing KID than the entire task force. Russell had been able to identify KID in disguise and had kept up in the chases, dodging all of the traps and nearly managing to swipe Kaito Kid's monocle.

Along with increasing success rate of preventing KID from stealing heist jewels, Kaito had been acting strangely. He had been playing pranks on Hakuba (much more than usual) and they seemed to be centered around the wayward kitten. In fact, Kaito had set off a smoke bomb and had dyed the normally chocolate colored kitten white. Then, later that day, Kaito had randomly popped in through the window of Hakuba's home with a quick,"Hiya!", startling Hakuba out his wits and causing him to spill the freshly brewed pot of ginseng tea on a hapless Russell. Obviously, as anyone would have reacted to having hot tea poured on them, Russell yowled in pain. However, Russell, having cat reflexes, had jumped for the window. Where Kaito, unfortunately, was still perched.

"GAH!" Kaito toppled back out the window with a face-full of panicked cat. He wouldn't have minded that much, if the accursed cat hadn't had its claws extended. Now the terrified kitten was demolishing his face _and _getting ginseng tea on him!

Shinichi leaped out of the window, using the obnoxious magician as a springboard, and dashed up a tree. That tea was hot! He shuddered, the tea starting to cool down in the afternoon breeze. Twitching his whiskers, Shinich pawed at his face lightly and sputtered in disgust. He had accidentally ingested and choked on some of the ginseng tea, which had tasted terrible. How did the Holmes fan stand it? He sprung lightly out of the tree, landing with a soft 'tak', oddly reminding himself of Kaito KID (It was probably the white fur dye).

The kitten promptly trotted back to Hakuba's home (He wanted a bath, damn it!) and passed a store with television displays in the windows. He ignored the news report that was on; it probably had something to do with the last KID heist (He had felt rather proud of himself and had squirreled away the monocle he stole.)

" –and the police still haven't been able to locate Kudo Shinichi."

Shinichi, upon hearing his name, whirled around and fixated on the news report.

"He is presumed to be dead. Bloodstains were found at the place he was last seen and has been identified as that of Kudo Shinichi. The police–"

Wide eyed, Shinichi tuned out the rest of the report. Despair washed through him like a roaring wave. The thought,"They think I'm dead?", running rampant through his mind. Ran – wouldn't she be crushed by this news?

He drew a shuddering breath.

Calmly, he reminded himself that it was better that they believed he was dead. Ran wouldn't have to worry about him and she would be safer. But in the back of his head, a nagging thought whispered that Ran would be devastated at his death; shouldn't he console her? Call her, tell her that he was alright? But he knew that these thoughts were hopeless; he couldn't even talk! As a cat, he didn't have the means to do that and even if he did, it would put her in danger.

His heart heavy with sorrow, he slowly padded back to his current home, ears drooping and tail dragging behind.

That night, Hakuba and a slightly depressed Russell arrived at the heist location. KID was planning on stealing the famous Eternal Star, a diamond set in a gold necklace that was rumored to glow in the moonlight.

Hakuba stared at the kitten, silently contemplating why the kitten looked so... _droopy_. He assumed that it had something to do with the leather collar he had affixed to the feline's neck and returned his attention to KID's heist site.

A few minutes before KID made his appearance, a smoke bomb, faintly smelling of catnip, abruptly exploded near the detective and the task force. Russell, being the closest, received a face-full.

The intoxicated kitten stumbled around wildly for a moment, drugged mewls happily echoing in the room. KID appeared in a flourish of pink smoke, the necklace in hand. Inspector Nakamori belted out an angry curse and the task force ran forward to dog-pile on the thief. Kaito KID simply smirked and agilely flipped away from the stampede of officers.

Leaping gracefully, he ascended the windowsill.

"Ta-ta, Nakamori-keibu. I don't want to be late, so I'll take my leave!"

As KID prepared to escape out of the window, a blur promptly shot past his hand, snatching the jeweled necklace from his grasp. It landed softly on to the carpet and turned its head, revealing the Eternal Star clutched in its mouth.

"Russell!" Hakuba shouted in disbelief. The little kitten's eyes were sparkling in mischief and, with his dyed fur, reminded him of a certain thief. Speaking of said thief, KID's expression was priceless. Poker-face went bye-bye, along with part of his reputation. The internationally renowned thief dove after Russell, who nimbly dodged, mewing happily around the necklace in his mouth. Hakuba bent down to pick up the kitten and retrieve the necklace, but the kitten dashed out of his reach and ran towards the windowsill that KID had recently vacated. KID and Hakuba immediately led chase. As this chaos occurred, the task force simply stared at the feline, gobsmacked. The kitten had stolen KID's heist target and had accomplished something that no one in the task force could have done. This cat had stolen KID's monocle the first time he was brought to a heist, prevented KID from stealing the jewels and retrieving them, and had just stolen the jewel right out of the thief's hand. Whereas, the task force had been chasing KID for years and still hadn't been able to catch up to him, let alone arrest him! Inspector Nakamori almost wanted to cry.

Shinichi cackled gleefully in his mind, his mental subconscious having flown the coop when the catnip kicked in. Now, he was in drugged happy mode, which was on par with a hyper Kuroba Kaito on crack. If you were smart, you would have run the opposite way. Hakuba and KID, however, were insanely intelligent. So they pursued the loony feline.

KID set off a round of smoke bombs, actively apprehending the kitten's current route. But, Russell merely executed a set of extremely complicated acrobatic maneuvers, evading the thief and detective both. Growling in frustration, Kaito KID briefly wondered if this was how the task force felt when they were chasing him. He didn't envy them at all. This was taking longer than it should have. He was Kaito KID, for heaven's sake! Nonetheless, the evasive feline eluded everything they threw at it. Even when he had, quite literally, thrown a couple things at it.

To his annoyance, the kitten had had turned his head and an expression that vaguely looked like a smirk materialized on his face before accelerating. Kaito gaped. That was _his_ smirk!

Putting on a burst of speed, KID sprinted after the cat, vindicated by the blatant use of his smirk.

"I'll show you...", Kaito muttered darkly, gaining on the kitten, "No one uses my smirk but me!"

As KID steadily grew closer and closer, Russell suddenly jerked and stumbled. Kaito took this chance to swipe at the cat and grab it. But as his hand closed over the kitten, it abruptly faded into thin air. Round eyed, Kaito KID rubbed his eyes and blinked in disbelief. The kitten wasn't there.

Then he realized he was still dressed in full KID regalia and Hakuba and the task force were nearing, based on the shouts, and stole out of the window.

Gasping, Shinichi sat huddled in the corner of the closet, back pressed up against the wall. He clutched at his chest. It felt like he was on fire, like molten lava was flowing through his veins; the pain was unbearable.

"What's happening to me?" His breath caught and he bit back a scream of pain.

Body wracked with spasms, he curled in on himself. Within moments, the kitten disappeared.

Hakuba rushed through the halls, chaos and smoke bombs exploding in succession around the building. Russell... Where was Russell? Panicked, he spun around and raced back towards the roof. Upon bursting through the doorway to the roof, eyes wide, froze and shifted into a defensive pose to reach for the gun in his coat.

On the opposite side of the roof, a slender figure stood there, silhouetted by the city lights. Slitted eyes observed him warily, while a tail swished nervously. Its hair – no, _ears_ – shifted slightly, turning towards his direction.

"You... what – what are you?" Hakuba stumbled over his words, trying discern what this creature was.

The figure flinched and stood there silently, head tilted as if it were thinking. After a minute of tense silence, it made its decision and slowly took a step forward.

Bit by bit, the moonlight revealed what had been hidden. First, the sneakers and the long jean clad legs were revealed, followed by the torso, covered in a partly zipped up jacket with a white shirt underneath. Finally, the figure's body was unveiled in its entirety, the moonlight shinning off of dark chocolate locks of hair.

Hakuba's eyes swept over the figure, taking in the intelligent blue eyes and the slightly mussed hair. His breath caught suddenly, eyes glued to the individual's one discerning identification. The leather collar. The collar that he himself had put on Russell's neck not two hours ago. Panicked, he tried to convince himself that it just looked like Russell's collar, but wasn't the same. But the tags affixed to the collar, with Russell's name and address, discarded that thought. Even the eyes – those shimmering blue eyes, intelligence within its depths – confirmed that this, without a doubt, was Russell.

"R-Russell?" Hakuba questioned tentatively as he eyed the half-cat half-human hybrid before him.

Russell's slitted eyes looked up, ears perking, and mewed happily, bounding towards his owner. Hakuba's jaw fell open. Watching a kitten trot over to you was cute, but when a teenager do the same was a bit disturbing – actually, it reminded him of Kuroba. Also, kitten's didn't weigh all that much. However, a seventeen year-old teenager springing into your arms was not the ideal situation to be in.

With an "oof", the air rushed from Hakuba's lungs and he landed rather ungracefully onto his rear end, a lap full of kitten turned human hybrid. A chorus of elated meows issued from Russell's lips as he lapped a Hakuba's face, much like an overenthusiastic dog. Except that he was a cat and did not slobber. Dumbfounded, Hakuba simply sat there as Russell lavished affection upon him in his own way – he could almost see the bubbly hearts and sparkles floating around.

"Uh... I didn't know that you did that kind of stuff, tantei-san. Don't you think you should do that somewhere else?" KID mumbled awkwardly. "I don't know what you do in your free time – and I don't want to know – but I'd appreciate it if you'd partake in your hobbies somewhere other that at my heist. I mean, I'm pretty sure you have a life outside stalking my heists, shouldn't you do that then instead of now? Plus, I think I have some child fans and this would be kinda inappropriate – " KID began to ramble, utterly oblivious of Hakuba's face slowly turning red.

Hakuba squawked and shoved the kitten-turned-human off of him, sending the surprised kitten ears over tail into the internationally wanted thief's legs. KID went down with a yelp, landing on the bewildered kitten. Russell squeaked and fell flat on his face, squished under the weight of the thief. Squirming and contorting into a painful-looking position that must have required a lot of flexibility (Shinichi was sure he couldn't have done that before. Catnip had weird effects on him...) he slipped out from underneath KID and scaled up the nearby wall. He hissed and glared down at KID, ears flattened against his skull.

Wide eyed, Hakuba gaped at the kitten-teen perched on an small outcropping attached to the wall. He thought only Kuroba could do that! Next thing he knew, Russell would be hanging off of the ceiling and playing pranks. Shaking his head to remove the mental images, he realized he was thinking of the kitten as an actual person instead of a cat. Maybe he was overreacting.

...Or maybe not.

Hakuba groaned and slumped as he watched Russell stare at Kaito KID curiously as he offered a rose to the surprised kitten. Russell sniffed at the rose and gracefully leaped down from his perch, leaning in towards the white clad thief. Mewing in curiosity, he reached forward and grasped the crimson rose between two fingers and tilted his head slightly, observing the flower. After a few moments of complementing silence, Russell meowed cheerfully and rubbed noses with the gentleman thief. KID jerked back in shock.

'Cats really weren't meant to be human', Hakuba mused, 'and Russell especially, being the affectionate little kitten he was.' He snickered, not bothering to be subtle about it, as he watched KID's predicament. Russell had tried to clamber on to the thief's shoulder, but being human made it more... _complicated _than it usually would have. The detective observed the scene in amusement as KID squawked and flailed, trying to prevent the kitten turned human from climbing on him. But the humorous thing was the joyful expression on Russell's face as he unwittingly unhinged a wildly flailing KID, whose normally cool visage was panicked and unkempt.

Life was good.

* * *

Shinichi groaned and shuffled down to the kitchen blearily. Zeroing in on the coffee pot, he tramped over to it, intent on having his morning coffee. Muttering in annoyance when he realized the pot was empty, he proceeded to make some, mumbling angrily all the while. He wanted coffee damn it!

Hakuba stirred and woke up to the smell off coffee. Mmmm... coffee. He stumbled out of his bed and had halfway dragged himself to the kitchen when his sleep-deprived mind calmly pointed out that he lived alone. Bloodshot eyes shooting wide open in shock, Hakuba tore off down the hallway towards the kitchen, intent on finding out who the heck was in his house at this ungodly hour.

Screeching to a stop, Hakuba was met with a surprised teenager with a cup of coffee halfway up to his lips. Blinking in confusion, the teen eyed Hakuba, who was gaping in astonishment.

"Wha – ?" Hakuba stuttered out, gesturing wildly. "What are you doing in my house, Kuroba?"

The other boy blinked a few times, looking completely befuddled, and tilted his head in a questioning manner. After a few moments, a curious 'nyah?' made its way out.

Mind finally waking up, Hakuba slapped his hand against his forehead. It was Russell.

Shinichi stared at the other unkempt teen in obvious curiosity. Why was Hakuba in his house? When the teen suddenly smacked himself, Shinichi blanched. What in the world was he doing?

"Sorry about that, Russell. I forgot."

His thought process coming to a screeching halt, Shinichi fixed a bewildered look at the other detective. Russell?

The modern day Sherlock Holmes graced Hakuba with an intelligent response.

"Eh?"

Wait a minute – Russell... that _was_ his name. Only as a cat. Oops.

Scrounging up a meowing noise from his throat, Shinichi grinned nervously and perched himself on a chair. Maybe he wouldn't notice the slip-up.

Hakuba suddenly jerked in surprise and ran to get his school uniform. He was going to be late again! Dashing past Russell and nabbing his bag as he rushed outside, slamming the door closed behind him.

Weirdo.

Yawning, Shinichi returned his attention to the coffee. Plodding over to a random room, Shinichi sprawled on a couch and drained the rest of the caffeine-filled goodness. Ah. He felt more awake now.

Fingering the leather cat collar on his neck, Shinichi abruptly broke into a mischievous grin. (He told himself that it was because the effects from the catnip hadn't worn off.) All he needed was Hakuba's spare gakuran (school uniform) and some hair gel. And maybe a few smoke bombs...

**A/N**

I can update quickly if I write a chapter with 2000+ words or update about once or twice a month with really long chapters. You can pick. Personally, I think 2000+ words and updating every few days is easier.

If anyone noticed Shinichi's OOCness, it was the catnip that caused it. When you're drugged, that tends to happen. And Hakuba's lack of a reaction to human!Russell is due to him dealing with Kuroba Kaito on a daily basis. Things don't freak him out as much as they used to.

I'm happy to see the response to this story. As an answer to **Aleathiel Elendil**'s review, you'll find out what Ran is doing soon enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Three_

Hakuba stepped into the classroom and strolled over to his seat, dropping his bag beside his desk. He twitched. Kuroba hadn't exploded one of those blasted glitter bombs in his face yet. This would have been a good thing, but it usually meant that something worse was going to happen later. And it was centered around him most of the time. He whipped his head back and forth and warily glanced at some of the more obvious places that Kaito liked to hide his pranks in. Nothing.

Hakuba slowly sat down in his seat, ignoring the few odd stares he got from some of the students.

The classroom door abruptly burst open and one Kuroba Kaito came rushing in, a mop-wielding Aoko following close behind. The inspector's daughter swung the mop at the magician angrily, missing as Kaito leaped up to cling on to the ceiling. Not two minutes later, a _second _Kaito ran in and agilely dodged all of Aoko's wild swings, before leaving out of the window as abruptly as he had arrived.

Hakuba blinked a couple of times and then pinched himself. He wasn't dreaming, was he?

Outside, Shinichi paused to check in on the reactions. He snickered slightly at the dumbfounded look on Hakuba's face. Ah... He understood why the Kuroba kid liked to mess around with him so much. Pulling off the wig that kept the cat ears on his head hidden, he enacted phase two of his plan.

The world exploded into chaos.

A terrified Shinichi ran past, completely horrified and scarred for life. He really did _not _need to see that in this or any other lifetime. Who knew that something like that could happen? He shuddered and raced back to Hakuba's house. Screw the prank, he was going home!

It was rather fortunate that he had decided to head back because not five minutes after he had entered the house, his body had been wracked with spasms and he had reverted back to an inquisitive kitten by the name of Russell.

He squirmed his way out of the oversized gakuran and sighed, staring at the garment pooled on the floor. At his size, he wouldn't be able to return it to the closet and he certainly couldn't put on the hanger. How was he supposed to explain this?

Suddenly, a pair of hands reached downwards and lifted the small kitten into the air. Shinichi yowled shock and attempted to free himself, but froze when he realized his assailant was none other than Hakuba Saguru.

Hakuba heaved a sigh and fixed the kitten with a reprimanding glare.

"What are you doing with my spare gakuran?"

He was sure that he had a pretty good idea what the kitten was doing with it, but there was no way Russell would stoop to playing pranks and impersonating Kaito. After all, he was the pet of the greatest detective the world had ever seen. (In his humble opinion.)

Which reminded him of one important detail...

"When did you change back?" Hakuba questioned the little kitten, raising an eyebrow when Russell's ears drooped.

Russell simply stared at him with a deadpan look and flicked his tail. Hakuba headed towards the kitchen, kitten in tow, and placed the cat on the table.

"There's going to be another KID heist tonight. However, this time the heist target is at the Beika Museum, so there will be a few other unfamiliar detectives and police officers. But don't worry, I'll still take you with me. You are a lucky charm and more experienced at catching KID than the rest of that incompetent task force. You did want to go, right?"

Mewing an affirmative, Russell stood up and hopped off of the table. Trotting out of the kitchen, Russell mewed happily and returned soon after, KID's monocle dangling from his mouth. Hakuba eyed the feline incredulously. He still had that thing? Shaking his head to clear the thoughts of where the kitten had retrieved it from, he scooped up Russell, who meowed indignantly, squalling at being unceremoniously picked up again. For a second, he could almost see a vein throbbing on the cat's temple. He shook his head. Russell truly was a one of a kind.

The KID heist was rather eventful. Inspector Nakamori and the task force were there, as expected, but so were an immense number of fans, one Suziki Sonoko loudly cheering her 'KID-sama' on.

Hakuba facepalmed. He really disliked diehard fans like the Suzuki girl. And Inspector Nakamori seemed to be facing off with another detective that looked eerily like he did. He shuddered. Two Inspector Nakamoris? One was more than enough. Groaning, he walked away as the two glared at one another, appearing to be fighting over who could shake hands the hardest. Go figure.

He glanced down at his side, expecting to see Russell, but to his surprise, the cat was no longer there.

Instead, the complacent kitten was curiously pawing at a young girl's legs and staring up at her cutely. Not normal. Hakuba twitched slightly and turned around, refocusing on the video feeds of the area of the heist. He suddenly jerked in shock. It was KID! He voiced his thoughts in a panic, alerting the rest of the task force that KID had arrived. Wide eyed, he and everyone else there stared in blatant disbelief. KID was standing – no, _floating_ – in mid-air! KID faced the crowd of fans with a smirk and began walking towards the building, footsteps echoing loudly as he made his way towards the heist location. Everyone present simply watched in dumbfounded silence, gasps and murmurs of surprise drifting from the crowd at random intervals.

"He has to be using wires!" Hakuba and a few members of the task force ran up towards the top of the buildings to see if KID was suspended by wires attached to the buildings. To their shock, there were no wires. Head turning he fixed his gaze on the thief. KID was walking on _thin air. _

Abruptly, Russell dashed towards KID and leaped off of the building. The kitten launched himself up into the air, amid distressed cries and shocked shrieks. Pouncing on KID, he landed gracefully on the thief's shoulder. Intelligent blue eyes surveyed the crowd below and – with an uncharacteristic smirk – he looked up at KID's face. At that moment, the white-clad thief simply returned the smirk and disappeared in explosion of smoke, the tiny kitten along with him.

Hakuba froze when the kitten had suddenly rushed off and had been, for one heart-stopping moment, had been in mid-air and falling towards the ground. To his immense relief, the kitten had easily maneuvered through the air and perched himself on the thief's shoulder. But his moment of relief had instantly evaporated when KID had disappeared, Russell along with him. This led to his current mood. It was the day after KID's impromptu scouting visit. He stared at the ground moodily, wondering if Russell was alright. He was feeling rather annoyed and disappointed. How had KID managed to walk on thin air and, more importantly, why had he taken Russell with him? It just didn't make any sense.

Once again, KID appeared and made his way towards the building while walking on thin air. However, this time, they had discovered his trick. They had tried contacting the pilot of helicopter number seven, but apparently KID's accomplice had taken over the helicopter. However, he soon found out why the thief's purpose for Russell was. Flitting past in the moonlight, was a pure white cat, a collar with KID's trademark clover charm dangling from it, affixed to its neck. The feline had gracefully and silently run past, agilely evading the officers and snatched the jewel from its casing. Doubling back, it had used Hakuba as a springboard and was concealed in a cloud of smoke before vanishing. It had just been a moment, time seeming passing in slow motion, but Hakuba had glimpsed the cat's eyes – impossibly blue and unnaturally intelligent – and soon realized that the cat had been none other than Russell.

What had KID done?

The sound of his paws rhythmically pounding against the ground echoed through his head as he sprinted towards KID's heist target. He was going to steal it – because he had to. Kaitou KID – no, Kaito Kuroba – had taken him when he had left the heist location. He had unceremoniously dropped him on a table (Why did everyone see the need to put him on a table?) and revealed that he knew who he was. Kaito had ruthlessly exploited his act and had pointed out the facts and evidence that he was Shinichi Kudo. Then, the magician had asked him how he had managed to get himself turned into a cat. This had lead to him directing a deadpan look at the thief. Cat's couldn't talk. A sweatdrop making it's way down his head, Kaito had chuckled sheepishly and tacked on 'when you turn human again' to his previous question. And then he had blackmailed him into helping out at the Kaitou KID heist as his sidekick/pet. Shinichi had no choice but to accept.

At least he got to mess with the Sherlock Holmes otaku.

Speaking of said otaku, he was surprised that he hadn't known who he was at first sight. After all, he was rather famous. Meh, who cared. Why bother to jinx his good luck? If he had recognized him, then things would have gotten rather messy. He was supposedly dead, anyway. And if Ran or anyone else other than that had found out...

But the main reason he had even accepted to go along with the thief's plan was his objective. His situation was similar and they were both after the same thing. He wanted to bring down the syndicate that had poisoned him and KID wanted to get revenge for his father and to destroy the organization's objective: The jewel Pandora. But it didn't make him like this any more than he did.

Sighing and ceasing the stream of thoughts, Shinichi landed with a soft 'tak' and padded over to the internationally renowned thief. Grumpily, he dumped the jewel in KID's hand (And no, he was not brooding. Or pouting. In any way.) ,stalked over to a chair and plopped down on it.

"Very nice job, Kaitou Kat." KID joked teasingly, patting the pseudo-cat on the head, quickly pulling away when Shinichi tried to bite him. He shook his finger at the kitten in a scolding manner, but soon regretted this when he was forced to dodge a swipe from Russell.

"Mou, so mean!" Kaitou KID cried while nursing his hand and pouting at the annoyed cat. Russell glared back and huffed. KID eyed the kitten for a few moments before standing up, dramatically sweeping his cape in a wide arc. KID spoke in a smooth voice, eyes glinting.

"Looks like it's time for Kaitou KID to make an appearance."

He produced a white rose and placed it at the kitten's paws.

"You know what to do."

Cerulean eyes glowed unnaturally in the darkness. They regarded the thief for a moment, then melted into the darkness as the cat gingerly picked up the rose in his mouth. A slight nod, barely discernible, and the cat sprang out of the window. KID watched the feline in silence and a smirk spread across his face.

"For a detective, you really are a skilled thief. I suppose that we aren't that different."

With these parting words, thief exited out of the window as well. He leaped off of the building and spiraled downward in free-fall. His glider unfurling, he soared through the skies and flew on the wind currents, sailing through the endless night. Below, a white blur – Russell, no, _Shinichi_ – raced through the streets and skillfully weaved around the buildings, keeping pace with his counterpart, white rose tightly clenched in his mouth. Their thoughts were unanimous, as if they were one. Pandora was theirs.

**A/N**

Uwah... (is overwhelmed by the response)

Glad to see you like it. In case you are unsure, Shinichi is currently half-human half-cat. (If you need clarification, it's cat ears on top of his head and he has a tail.) Reason why? Well, I remember reading somewhere that ginseng was one of the ingredients to cure the APTX-4869. Since he hasn't gotten a full dose of the entire cure and it's only one of the ingredients, the result is a partially restored Shinichi. I would like to restore Shinichi to his own body soon or at least a semblance of it. But it's going to be a bit complicated because he's a cat and even if he met Haibara, he wouldn't be able to communicate with her. And yes, Hakuba is being an oblivious idiot who does not realize that Russell is Shinichi.

I'm sure you all have figured out what episode I took the heist from. Although I changed it around a little...

I watched the first Detective Conan OVA. Kaitou KID, you dork. But I got inspiration from it anyway.

Has anyone figured out who the little girl was?


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Four_

Shinichi gazed downwards at the crowd below. Most of them were either Kaitou KID's cheering fans or members of Inspector Nakamori's task force. He shook his head slightly. How Kaitou KID managed to develop such a large fan base he would never know. Sighing, he padded over to the edge of the building and surveyed the area. His eyes narrowed as he went about the meticulous job of distracting the officers. Normally it would be be effortless, but he had to divert the attention of every single police officer present and, if possible, the fans as well.

"Oh my gosh!"

Shinichi sprang five feet into the air, startled by the unexpected squeal. He squalled and yowled in terror as a pair of grabby hands yanked him up into the air. He was immediately cuddled and squished in a death embrace by a squee-ing Kaitou KID fan. He clawed at the air, eyes filled with panic, trying to escape the surprisingly powerful grip of the overly affectionate fangirl. He vaguely heard a faint childish voice shout, "Sonoko-neechan!", but he paid no attention to it, as his mind was on other things at the time. Gasping for air, he contorted into a extremely flexible and uncomfortable position and barely managed to maneuver his way out of the squealing female's arms. He flipped over and arced away from the girl and sprinted towards freedom the moment his paws met the ground. Once he was sure that he was a very safe distance away, he slowed to a stop and redirected his mind back to KID's heist. Regaining his composure, he dashed back to his vantage point, this time making sure that he stayed in the shadows and far, _far_ away from any squeaky fangirls.

He trotted up to the vantage point of the building and sat, turning around to observe the general area.

Abruptly, a voice whispered from the darkness. "Silver Bullet..." Spinning around and coming to a sudden halt, he faced the general direction of the disembodied voice. A woman glided out from the shadows, seeming melting from the darkness. He flattened his ears against the back of his head and hissed threateningly, warning the stranger to keep her distance. She smirked and dropped a necklace with a small jewel shard dangling off of it in front of the kitten.

"Use it well."

And with those cryptic words, she disappeared back into the shadows, throwing a smug smirk back at him. Shinichi stared back after her, head tilted in thought. After a few moments of silence, his brain provided him with an intelligent thought.

She was just like that creepy witch lady!

Speaking of which, the creepy witch ladies that he had met so far were usually right. He snorted and shook his head back and forth.

It was always the weird ones.

Shinichi scooped up the shard with his teeth and wound it around the collar on his neck. Even if it turned out to be useless, at least it was shiny!

* * *

He zeroed in on the target. Activating a smoke bomb, he effectively diverted the people in the vicinity and darted towards the aforementioned Pandora jewel. He would avenge his father! Among the shocked cries and furious yells, he swiped the jewel out of its case with a flourish and sprang up into the air. His cape unfurled, the edges of the white cloth snapping stiffly as it transformed into KID's trademark glider. Kaitou KID sailed off through the sky, the infuriated ranting and cursing of Inspector Nakamori still audible behind him.

Kaitou KID had successfully pulled off another, and possibly his last, heist.

Breathing deeply, he observed the jewel in his gloved hand. It really didn't look like anything special at first glance. Simply sparkly and shiny, like all other gems. But this one would most likely prove to be more important than it seemed to be.

He stepped forward, arm tense with anticipation, and held the jewel up to the moon.

Immediately, a brilliant crimson light flooded the area, bathing everything within its path with its sickly glow. A doublet, another jewel inside of a jewel, was revealed, standing out against the stark scarlet color of Pandora.

Abruptly, Pandora resonated, quivering in his hand.

Once.

Twice.

It flashed, the moonlight glinting off of it and his surroundings beginning to bend and warp as reality was lost. Everything spun wildly in a dizzying whirl.

And then, he knew no more.

* * *

Shinichi collapsed as his body began to fade into nothingness. Around his neck, the jewel shard glowed hauntingly and resonated twice. As he melted into mist and faded into thin air, the shard's carmine gleam remained before dissolving, the wisps drifting off like smoke.

THUNK.

A indignant squawk of pain crossed his lips as gravity took hold and he was ungracefully dumped onto his rear. Rubbing his sore rear end, he grumbled in annoyance and clambered to his feet. Swaying woozily for a few moments, he soon regained his balance and stumbled forward a few steps.

He found himself facing an astonished Ran. She stared at him for a few moments and he stared back, eyes wide. Ran inclined her head slightly, hair shadowing her eyes and her expression quickly morphed into an infuriated one. Thunder boomed ominously in the background.

"SHINICHIIII..."

He 'eeped' in fear and prepared to remedy the situation. Before he could say anything, Ran's fist hurtled past his face, the rush of wind from Ran's fist stinging his face. He quickly reacted as the situation called for.

Shinichi shrieked in terror and promptly scaled the nearest tree.

Ran stared at the place Shinichi had been previously standing, dumbfounded. She slowly turned her gaze up towards the oak tree where the high school detective was currently perched, cowering fearfully and pitifully whimpering. Her aforementioned anger slowly trickled into confusion, bewilderment, and just a touch of amusement. Ran's lips curled upwards into a smile and she found herself giggling.

"Hahahaha!" She held a hand up over her mouth, attempting to stifle the laughter that was spilling from her lips.

What was she doing? She should be mad at Shinichi for abandoning her and being off on some stupid case!

"Ah-ah... Ran-neechan?"

Conan's inquisitive voice floated up from beside her. Her laughter slowly ceased into small gasps. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, chest still heaving from laughter.

"Hahaha... y-yes Conan-kun?"

Conan stared up at her cutely, large eyes sparkling in bewildered confusion.

"Ne, Ran-neechan, who's the weird guy in the tree?"

"Ah..." She looked back towards Shinichi – who was still clinging to the tree for dear life – staring down at her in a way that faintly reminded her of a terrified cat that had been chased by some monstrous dog.

"That's Shinichi, Conan-kun." Ran smiled softly.

Conan tilted his head slightly so the light reflected off of his glasses and hid his eyes.

"So this is Shinichi-niichan, right Ran-neechan."

Ran blinked. The way Conan had phrased it made it sound more like a statement rather than a question. It seemed like he didn't really think that this was even Shinichi; there even seemed to be a threat hidden behind his words.

Conan beamed at her deviously – his eyebrow twitching madly and his smile strained – and skipped towards the oak tree cheerfully.

"I'll go help Shinichi-niichan down then!"

He waved at the tree and bounced up and down.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty!"

Conan giggled mischievously (in pure childish innocence, of course!), practically radiating rainbows and sunbeams. He sprang up towards one of the branches and, using it as a springboard, launched himself closer and batted at Shinichi's nose. Shinichi squeaked and jerked backwards in surprise. Looking back down at the aforementioned child, he involuntarily shuddered. The kid had Kaitou KID's grin. The cat-teen gulped when the child's – Conan, was it? - visage shadowed over, a foreboding smirk more suited to KID on his face.

"Kiiitty-chan..." Conan sing-songed, entirely too happy. "Come here kitty-chan!"

Shinichi whimpered and looked at Ran from the corner of his eye, mentally begging for help. But Ran didn't make a move to help; instead, she was smiling at the utter cuteness (Sure, _cute_.) of Conan-kun. Suddenly, Conan leaped upward again, intent on reaching the other. Shinichi squawked and scooted backwards quickly, attempting to keep the little hellion from attacking his nose again. Unfortunately, moving back on a tree branch was apparently not the wisest idea. Shinichi pinwheeled backwards, flailing to regain his balance. But efforts turned out to be in vain and he found himself hurtling towards an inevitable meeting with the ground. His eyes snapped

open abruptly and he acted. His instincts took over – his muscles bunched as he quickly sprang off of the branch, flowing into a symmetrical back-flip and fluidly arcing through the air, landing softly in a crouch with a cat-like grace. The cat-teen smoothly straightened and sauntered over to the not-child and his neechan. He stopped in front of the two and spoke with a enchanting, hypnotic voice.

"I'm sorry, I believe that you have mistaken me for another, miss. My name is Russell, not Shinichi."

He bowed slightly and smiled winningly, imitating KID's expression and speech structure (which had won the hearts of fangirls everywhere). Ran blinked, a small blush on her cheeks. Looking over him again, she realized the difference between him and Shinichi. Unlike the Shinichi, his hair was spiky and strangely feathery and his facial structure was considerably different – his was slightly more refined and somewhat cat-like. She flushed in embarrassment and stuttered an apology, bowing quickly and indicating for Conan to do the same. The child stared at him accusingly for a few moments before complying and bowing to him grudgingly, but he made sure the mock respect and apparent dislike were blatantly obvious.

"I'm sorry, Russell..._niisan_."

Conan struggled a bit, gritting his teeth before he uttered the suffix. But somehow, the way he spoke made the endearing suffix sound more like an insult. Oddly enough, Ran didn't seem to notice.

**A/N**

Gahh... plotbunny overload. I got too many ideas, with no transition or connection to the story. So, it resulted in me taking a _month_ to write this. Such a failure... T.T

Dimension travel. Yes, I'm putting way too many changes in one story. But it was the only way to organize this. Urgh. And it's still short...


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Five_

With a squawk of terror, Shinichi sprang from his perch, fur on end, and landed with a painful sounding 'THUNK'. Less than a few moments later, Hakuba burst into the room blindly flailing around to ward off whatever threat (He had expected a burglar.) that was in the vicinity and promptly tripped over the floored Shinichi. Which, in turn, caused a chain of unfortunate events. On the way down, Hakuba had grabbed at the comforter draped over the sofa in order to prevent himself from falling flat on his face. To his chagrin, it was, unluckily, not attached to the sofa and he had ended up in a rather painful faceplant on the ground, the blanket clutched in his hands doing nothing for softening his fall. The downed Hakuba groaned.

Shinichi stood up unsteadily, head spinning. So that entire Pandora heist – which was rather stupid and pointless in his own humble opinion – was just a dream? Then again, there was no way that he would have helped that retarded white-clad kleptomaniac steal some mythical jewel of his own free will. Also, KID had stolen the Blue Wonder, not Pandora. And that weird kid – what was with the whole 'Conan' thing anyway? Wasn't that part of the name of the creator of Sherlock Holmes? The only person he could think of that would use that kind of name was that obsessed mystery otaku, Hakuba. It's not like it was even logically possible to be able to cross over to dimensions. Gah. His brain was starting to hurt. He mentally noted not to have milk before bed or after a KID heist. It was probably starting to get to him. He wandered out of the room shakily, cluelessly stepping on Hakuba, who was dazedly muttering curses on the floor.

The following day found a somewhat disturbed Hakuba with bloodshot eyes and bags under his eyes. Upon his entrance into his classroom, he had promptly collapsed onto his desk. His classmates shied away from him, whispering and giving him pointed glances, wondering just what the heck had happened to put him in that state. Even Kaito had foregone his usual pranks on the British detective out of shock. Hakuba's disheveled appearance was something that the detective would have never allowed anyone to see in public and completely contradicted his usual clean cut, if not somewhat nerdy, look.

The door opened and Russell trotted in looking all for the world like he belonged in that classroom. It was strange how human the cat seemed to be at times. However, the kitten's catlike instincts and reactions (cough,cough, _catnip..._) contradicted that theory. Perhaps Russell was simply intelligent. Really, really intelligent. Intelligent enough to rival an actual human. Maybe he was a human who got turned into a cat by some freak poison or some sort of accident. But there was no way that could happen; Russell was_ definitely_, 100%just an ordinary, perfectly normal cat.

Shinichi yawned and stretched out, popping the kinks in his back. It was nice, being able to sleep peacefully whenever he wanted and not have to constantly worry about distractions. And this time, he hadn't had one of those extremely random and unprecedented dreams again. Last time it had been about KID and Pandora, as well as some sort of oddly ridiculous alternate dimension. Not to mention, he somehow had managed to turn completely human again in that dream. Unfortunately, that wasn't reality, as much as he desired to actually be able to communicate with someone else, especially those bumbling idiots on the KID task force. At least they'd actually be able to get something done with some of his help. Like how KID successfully made off with the heist target. And, now that he thought about it, that weird silver haired lady was almost like an inverse Akako Koizumi. Both of them were strange, looked and acted like they had a hand in everything that happed, and most likely consorted with Lucifer and or the devil. Of course, these were simply nonessential thoughts and he really didn't feel like brooding in a dark corner about his worries. Come to think of it, what had happened to Ran? Shinichi already knew – he was about 99.9% positive that Ran's fumbling, idiotic father was somewhere bellowing his affections to Yoko Okino and getting himself drunk, unavoidably making an overly large mess for Ran to clean. Of course, Ran would most likely enter righteous super daughter mode and scare her father into cleaning a little (And it would eventually reach a point from hazardous disaster to acceptable pigsty) but she would be doing most of the work. The feline briefly wondered when Ran would get fed up and kick her father out or, quite preferably, chuck him in the trashcan out back.

Shinichi snorted in amusement at the thought. If that ever did happen, he would, without a doubt, pay to see that. It would be amusing to see someone else other than him suffer a beating from Ran.

Hakuba absentmindedly reached down and petted Russell. The teen-turned-kitten purred softly and rolled over, approving of the petting and attention he was receiving. Meanwhile, across the classroom, Kaito's laser trained gaze was focused on the happily mewing kitten. His brow was creased, like he had something on his mind or was thinking very hard. Either way, this was an extremely rare thing to happen – once in a blue moon – and most of the other students readily took note, prepared to take cover at the slightest incentive or tried avoid him as much as possible. They were wary, most of them expecting a major-scale prank and a miniscule percentage of them seeing it a rare chance to fend off pranks for the rest of the day. But you never knew with an unpredictable magician like Kaito Kuroba.

A smirk in place on her face, Akako sashayed over to Hakuba's seat and lifted a slender hand to stroke the top of the kitten's head. Russell 'mrr-ed' and and leaned into her hand, purring contentedly. Then, abruptly, the purring cut off as Russell realized just who was petting him. With a squeak of utter surprise and horror, he jerked backwards and tumbled head over paws into Hakuba's lap. Which, in turn, startled the British detective awake. Hakuba's head whipped up into the air with an impressive show of reflexes, but he soon regretted it as the sudden movement caused whiplash. He hunched over his desk, clutching his head in pain and muttering obscure curses under his breath. Below, a bemused Russell lay in a mangled pile of kitten and pain.

Akako laughed in her crazed witch cackle and scooped the bewildered kitten up. She spoke in amusement, patting the kitten on the head and whispering one of her deceptive prophecies. The witch smirked and placed Russell back on the desk, adding another suggestion.

"Try to get a hold of some ginseng. It'll be very helpful in the future." She sent another of her foreboding smiles at the kitten. "You'll meet an important person to you soon... take care."

With that, Akako strode away, most likely leaving to consult with Lucifer. Behind, Shinichi stared curiously at her back, wondering about her words. The bell rung and the students exited the classroom. Kaito hopped over to Russell and patted him on the head, grinning ferociously. Russell glared at him in discontent. What was with people and patting him on the head? The resident magician simply tucked a scrap of paper into the kitten's collar and ran out of the classroom, cheekily waving. Russell stared after him for a while, bewildered. After a moment of though, he leaped off of the desk and trotted after the thief, intent on discovering what the purpose of the paper scrap was. A few minutes later, Hakuba sluggishly lifted his head out of his hands, finally having recovered from the whiplash. He blinked in surprise when he was met with an empty room. Where did everybody go?

Kaito smirked as Shinichi ran towards him. He picked up the teen-turned-kitten, who quickly perched himself upon the magician's shoulder. Shinichi mewed questionably and fixed him with a calculating stare. Kaito spoke quietly in order to prevent anyone else from eavesdropping.

"Kaitou KID's next heist will be targeting the Lady Sky. Jirokichi Suzuki has possession of the jewel." He grinned waggishly at this. "Hakuba will most likely go to the heist and will take you with him. Try to detect and inform me of the traps."

Kaito turned and looked up towards the sky.

"Jirokichi Suzuki has already expressed an interest in capturing the KID, especially during the last heist, so I expect that there will be some very well-planned traps."

Shinichi eyed him contempt for a moment before jumping off of Kaito's shoulder, gracefully landing on the ground with a soft 'tak'. He stretched out a paw and began tracing words into the dirt. Kaito observed the kitten's actions in interest. He wasn't really all that surprised; after all, he already knew that Russell was really Shinichi Kudo. The kitten stepped back when he had finished and looked up at Kaito earnestly, a small note of amusement glinting in his eyes. The magician's eyes widened.

"This... this is!"

Shinichi sauntered over to the airship, subconsciously tugging the hat on his head to lower the brim in order to help hide his face. He slowly turned around, surveying the area and noting possible routes for escape. The teen heaved a sigh when he noticed the group of people arriving and quickly fixed the large rimmed glasses on his face.

"Hm..." He mused quietly as he observed the members of the group. From what he could see, it seemed that Sonoko Suzuki, Jirokichi Suzuki, Ran and her father, and Hakuba were boarding the airship. As the filed past him, the disguised Shinichi barely managed to stifle a snort when he overheard Hakuba snarkily muttering under his breath. "Of course the old coot gets to bring his dog, but I can't even bring my cat." Shinichi glanced over at Ran quickly, attempting to asses her mood. She seemed somewhat melancholy, but she carried herself with a firm, unwavering demeanor. She seemed to have taken his supposed death somewhat well. At least, she wasn't acting as pathetic as her father did on a daily basis. Sonoko walked past, engrossed at looking at something on her cellphone. As she passed by, she suddenly stumbled, having not noticed the steps. Shinichi immediately moved forward to catch her.

"Are you alright miss?"

Sonoko stood up and waved her hand flippantly. "I'm all right, there's no way I'd be delayed from meeting my KID-sama!"

He stared back, eye twitching in disbelief. Was she for real? At least she hadn't realized his identity. For once, he was actually thankful for the acting skills his mother pounded into his head and the improptu disguising and voice altering session Kaito had forced him to learn.

"Hai, just remember to be careful, miss." Shinchi replied obediently, keeping up the polite worker facade.

Shinichi silently scoffed as Sonoko swept past into the airship, once again chattering about her 'amazing Kaitou KID-sama', the brief meeting quickly disregarded. He had forgotten how annoying the rich Suzuki girl was. As Ran strolled past, she suddenly paused in surprise and gasped, a hand going up to cover her mouth.

"You're bleeding!" Shinichi jerked with a start, startled by Ran's sudden exclamation. He looked back up at her and followed her gaze, realizing that his elbow was bleeding from a small cut.

"Oh... I didn't notice."

Ran searched through her purse momentarily, handing two bandages over to him enthusiastically. "Here, apply this to the wound." She smiled serenely for a moment, eyes suddenly gaining the familiar independent glint that Shinichi knew and recognized.

"Ah..." Shinichi was stunned for a second, reminiscing about a past event where he and Ran thought an airship they saw was a UFO. He pulled his head out of the clouds, shaking his head rapidly to dislodge any remaining clouds and reached out to take the bandages. "Thank you."

He bowed respectfully, tipping his had slightly in thanks. Ran smiled back, waving as she boarded the airship. "It was nice meeting you!" His lips quirked up into a hesitant semblance of a smile. "You too." He called after her waving back uncertainly. As Ran disappeared into the blimp, he lowered his hand slowly, an indecisive expression on his face. Shinichi stared at the doorway of the airship quietly, pondering this new development.

Ran...

Kaito yawned, stretching outrageously to pop the kinks in his back. Ah... that felt nice. He swiveled his head around, regarding Shinichi lazily. "So you saw Ran, eh?" He shifted slightly, pausing to scratch his head, holding back another yawn. Shinichi simply nodded obediently, his pensive gaze lingering over at the Lady Sky's resting place – where Ran was. Kaito stared at Shinichi for a moment, noting the barely noticeable depressing cloud hanging over the teen-turned-kitten's head. He stroked his chin in thought and grinned as he came to a decision.

"Shinichi, why don't you take on the waiter's disguise instead? Two heads are better than one; since you're a detective, you can help out. Don't forget to check over the Lady Sky for me later." With that, Kaito swept out of the room, smirking at the poorly hidden joy apparent in Shinichi's eyes as he rushed to fulfill the request.

His good deed was done for the day.

"Otou-san!"

Ran rushed past Sonoko's uncle, intent on helping up her moron of a father. Apparently, he had decided that touching the keypad to the Lady Sky's case would be an intelligent idea. Immediately as a result, it had triggered a trap. A considerably comedic trap, but a trap nonetheless. A compartment had opened and a boxing glove had shot out and punched her clueless father smack dab in the face, sending him flying backwards a considerable distance. It would have been somewhat amusing, had it been someone else other than her father. (She had to deal with her father's moronic actions everyday. It would have been nice to see someone else do something stupid for a change.) Kogoro shot up to his feet in a fury, flailing his fist wildly and belting out curses, intent on enacting some revenge, while angrily racing towards Jirokichi Suzuki. Abruptly, he was zapped by a sensor. Kogoro collapsed on the ground, still smoking from the sudden electric shock. Ran stared down at him, thoroughly embarrassed and exasperated.

"...Otou-san." This time, she spoke the honorific somewhat more resigned that the first.

She sighed, exasperated, and left with everyone else, her smoking, charred, moron of a father staggering behind.

**A/N**

I have had an epiphany!

…

Well, not really.

It's more of a breakthrough with the story. I ended up flying through this chapter and writing more than the 2000 word minimum I had placed on the chapters. Yay! Now all I need now is to be able to do so for all the other chapters following this one...

Otou-san means father in Japanese.

Yay for Detective Conan Movie 14! It is freakin' awesome! And, thus, is the inspiration for this and the next few chapters. I finally worked around that stupid writer's block! (And some very irrelevant ideas.)


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Seven_

Muttering curses under his breath, Shinichi silently sneaked past and slipped into a shadowed corner. A sentry strode past, heavy boots echoing as they clunked against the floor. After he had passed, a feline set of eyes glowed from the darkness of the shadowed corner and Shinichi, tail waving behind him, resumed his sprint towards the lounge. Not less that five minutes ago, an announcement had sounded over the airships speakers, requesting everyone on the airship to move to the lounge. The teenager-turned-feline didn't doubt for a moment that Jirokichi Suzuki had been forced to move the entire staff by the hijackers. But it didn't really make his job any easier. He had already set off towards the cafeteria, where they were originally, but Jirokichi's announcement had sent him screeching to a halt and barreling in the opposite direction towards the lounge. In his panic induced stupor, he had quite nearly gotten himself caught by one of the hijackers. Luckily, due his small stature and coloring, he hadn't been noticed in the dimly lit corridor and he had managed to keep off of the Red Siamese Cats' radar. Kaito had left his radio feed on, so Shinichi could still hear everything that was going on in the lounge. To his amusement, Hakuba, of all people, was muttering about how they could have gotten out of this situation had he had either his falcon or his cat. It was ironic, in a way, because he was already on board the airship and was coming to help them.

Gah! Shinichi swerved around a random column that seemed to be there for the sole purpose of making him crash into it. Why were there columns in the airship? The cat continued running, opting for the darker areas of the hallways and sticking to the shadows. He couldn't afford to be caught, especially since he was the only one with enough leeway to make it around the airship undetected. Not to mention that he could change into a disguise at a moment's notice, be it human or feline. The poison he had been administered that triggered the change from Shinichi Kudo to Russell, Hakuba's pet cat was useful at times, as much as he hated to admit it. Shinichi inhaled sharply and darted into an enclave between the walls, eyes narrowed. One of the hijackers clomped past, tossing one of the airship's passengers – Mizukawa, was it? He was one of the reporters that Jirokichi Suzuki had allowed on the airship – into the smoking room. From the quick glance Shinichi had managed to see from his perch, Mizukawa had been infected by the virus. The portly reporter's hand was a swollen red, which was one of the symptoms of the virus. A sudden crackling of static startled him, drawing his attention to the source of the sound – the radio. The hijacker answered into his radio, deep voice resounding in the narrow hallway. "This is Cat B. I have deposited the infected."

Shinichi's tail swished slightly as the opening was revealed to him. He could take out the hijacker – Cat B – in just one move. Silently springing onto a higher ledge, the kitten estimated the general distance and height needed to distract and disarm Cat B for a long enough time to knock him out. The feline crouched, preparing to pounce. This was a win or lose situation – he had only one chance. Shinichi made a leap of faith, aiming to disarm Cat B...

He missed.

Apparently he had miscalculated his flight route and instead of knocking the bastard over, he had, invariably, pantsed the thug. Cat B freaked, thoroughly embarrassed, and quickly pulled his pants back up, hiding the heart emblazoned boxers. Shinichi facefaulted. That certainly wasn't part of the plan. It definitely didn't follow the original idea of knocking out the man. However, it still worked in the end, serving as a distraction long enough for him to send a capsule of knockout gas in the hijacker's face, sending Cat B off on an unplanned trip to la-la land. Cat B collapsed on the ground with an audible thud. Shincihi winced. He had been planning to go through with the least amount of noise possible. At least he had gotten one of the hijackers out of action. Now, all he had to do was to go about the tedious task of hiding the body. The feline sighed heavily, bemused. This was going to take a while.

"Cat B?" There was a fizzle of static. "Cat B? Cat B, answer me!" The leader of the group cursed in disgust. He turned and roared at another one of the members of the Red Siamese Cats. "Cat A, go take a look!" Cat A saluted and shouted an affirmative, loudly clopping out of the room. Meanwhile, the occupants of the room fixed narrow stares on the terrorist group. Something strange was going on.

Cat A quickly sprinted through the halls, heavy footfalls slamming against the carpeted floor. A muffled thud echoed as the hijacker abruptly tripped over a protruding object. He never got a opportunity to see what had tripped him before a spritz of sleeping gas was concentrated in his face. He didn't stand a chance against the powerful force that was known as Russell, detective-turned-kitten. Shinichi groaned. He had indeed taken out another one of the Red Siamese Cats, but couldn't they at least fall in a more hidden area? It wasn't exactly easy to drag a one-hundred something pound adult into a shadowed area at his current size. He was just a kitten right now, dammit! If they didn't even have the sympathy to do that, the least they could do was eat less. These people were heavy!

"Cat A? Cat A, what's going on? What are you doing? Cat A!" Static once again crackled in response to the leader of the Red Siamese Cats' inquiries. The hijacker let out an expletive. Abruptly, Cat A's radio was answered. A smooth, superior sounding voice carried from the handset. "Cat A is lying on the floor right now. However, this is weird. Cats are supposed to land on their feet." The leader growled angrily and turned towards the remaining operatives. "Cat C, D, E! Go and catch this bastard. And when you find him, shoot him." His face twisted into an angry but cruel expression. "That's right, you can kill him. Shoot him dead." The named operatives shouted their affirmatives and abandoned what they were doing to search for the aforementioned bastard. The leader lifted the handset to his mouth and issued another set of orders. "Cat F!" Cat F set the airship on autopilot and left the cockpit, heading to serve as a guard. A waitress, who had earlier proven to be working with the Red Siamese Cats was quickly assigned to stand guard just outside the lounge.

Cat C entered the hallway and balked. He convulsed and jerked backward in complete surprise as a... _kitten..._? sped past his feet on a skateboard. Cat D lay a few feet behind, flat on his face on the floor and out cold. A yelp echoed from behind him and he turned around in time to see Cat E be knocked off of his feet and be flung into the air. Cat E landed rather clumsily in a tangle of limbs, his head clonking against the wall hard enough to knock the hijacker out. The aforementioned kitten swerved around a corner and disappeared from sight, still perched on the skateboard. Cat C stood gaping in the silent hallway. Did he see what he think he just saw? He rubbed his eyes furiously and looked back up, blinking to dispel anything obscuring his vision. The hallway was empty, save for the passed out Cat E. A disoriented Cat C stood slack jawed for a few moments before he stumbled down the corridor in chase of the elusive kitten.

Shinichi raced down the corridors of the airship, wind whistling past his ears and tail fluttering straight out behind him. A voice quietly briefed him on the situation in the lounge from a radio hooked to his collar, which had a wireless connection to the earpiece set in the feline's ear. KID. Loud clomping steps abruptly started to echo behind him as one of the Red Siamese Cats pursued him. Sparing a quick glance behind him, he realized that the man had been annoyed enough to begin shooting. The man fired off a few shots, which Shinichi maneuvered around with definite ease. He had been a whiz with a skateboard while human; who's to say that he couldn't do the same as a cat? Cat C suddenly crouched and took aim. A shot rang out, flying with more accuracy towards the lithe kitten. Shinchi's eyes widened perceptibly. His legs tensed and he sprang up into the air, arcing into a perfect somersault and landing smoothly on to the speeding skateboard, not missing a single beat. Almost immediately after he swerved around the corner down another hall, he snagged the gun that he had strapped under the skateboard and ran into the men's bathroom,leaving Cat C chasing the wayward skateboard. Skidding to a stop beside the stall he had previously been in, he slid underneath the stall door and dragged out the clothes he had stashed there. Fishing out the ginseng pill, he swallowed it and prepared to trigger the transformation.

Cat C rushed after the skateboard, intent on ridding the airship of the feline nuisance. Suddenly, a black shadow dropped from above and landed on the terrorist, striking a pressure point on the back of his neck and knocking him out cold. Shinichi smirked. "You make a very pitiful cat." Slitted blue eyes gleamed in amusement as he bent down to take Cat C's weapons. He made short work of him and tied the hijacker up, shoving him into a shadowed corner like he had done with the rest. Shinichi continued towards the lounge coolly, silently speeding through the halls, senses on high alert. Upon reaching the corridor near the lounge, he paused behind one of the walls and took scope of the situation. There was a guard in front of the lounge and according to what he had heard from Kaito, there were two more inside. He gritted his teeth in anger. If he tried to help now, the leader could just take hostages and he wouldn't be able to do anything. In order to keep everyone safe, he'd have to draw him out. The detective scanned the vicinity carefully, trying to formulate a plan. A idea suddenly struck him. That was it!

"Heh. Was that all? Cat C, D, and E have all been declawed. Haven't you got anything better than that?" An arrogant sounding voice uttered from the leader's radio. He growled, infuriated, and grabbed his gun, storming out of the room and heading to take care of the arrogant brat once and for all. Shinichi clung to ceiling above, waiting to ambush the angry terrorist. Once he heard the heavy footsteps of the leader stomping towards him, he tensed his muscles in preparation to eliminate the leader immediately. The moment he walked under the awning which Shinichi was hidden between, the teenage dropped downwards in a rush, swinging his leg into a deadly roundhouse kick and disarming the hijacker. To his shock, the leader turned out to be more hardy than he had expected and recovered easily, hefting his gun and sending a round of speeding bullets at the surprised teen. Shinichi barely managed to dodge, his feline instincts kicking in and forcing him to leap into a controlled arc over the deadly bullets. He landed in a crouch and jumped forward like a tightly coiled spring, kicking the gun out of the leader's hands and out of reach. Instantly flowing into a defensive stance, he rushed forward and barreled into the man, knocking the breath out of his lungs and sending him flying into a wall painfully. Shinichi sprang up and leveled a gun at the head of the leader of the Red Siamese Cats. "It's over."

The leader glared at him defiantly. A smirk spread across the detective's face and his hand moved, striking the man solidly on the temple, knocking him out. He crouched and picked up a radio handset. "Hello~! Listen up! Your leader has been caught. And the rest of your friends too." He sang out pleasantly, a perky note in his voice. After doing so, he balked, face pale. Did he just...? Shinchi groaned. Kaito was rubbing off on him wasn't he? Was Kaito's idiocy contagious or something?

Cat F started when an unfamiliar voice burst out from his radio cheerily, informing him that the leader had been caught. "What? That's nonsense!" As the man denied this occurance, Inspector Nakamori peeked over the railing and leaped out, tackling the hijacker to the ground. "Go! Lupin!" Jirokichi Suzuki sicced his dog on the hapless Cat F, effectively disarming the man and sending his gun skidding across the floor. The old Suzuki dashed across to grab the weapon, but was discouraged when the traitor waitress ran from her guard post and shot at him. "Gwooooh!" Jirokichi flailed and ran back behind the door frame as fast as his portly frame would allow. The waitress growled and ran into the room, cocking the gun at the group. Before she could shoot, Kogoro Mouri flew forward and snatched her arm, flinging her over his shoulder in a perfectly execute judo throw. She crashed on the ground with a painful-sounding thunk and lay still, knocked out. "Hn! You're stupid to think that you can get rid of me with this thing." He waved the tiny hand held gun for extra emphasis. In the meantime, during all of the excitement, Kaito slipped out of the room, contacting Shinichi. "The other two have been taken out." With that, he exited quickly to prepare for and enact the original KID heist plan. Time to run circles around the task force!

Shinichi rubbed his forehead tiredly, groaning in annoyance. He was almost positive that Kaito's less that savory habits were rubbing off on him, if the previous cheery tone of voice he had used was any sign of it. Sighing once again, he plodded down back to the lounge. Maybe chatting with Ran would help – if he managed to become friends with her, he could keep an eye on her to make sure she was alright. (And in plain sight too!) So long as Hakuba didn't notice anything strange, that is. After all of the hijacker business, everyone would be more alert than usual. Speaking of which – why did the hijackers have bombs _and _claim to have the virus? He had already disarmed the bombs in hold and discovered that their so-called virus was just paint. The reason why only he had noticed was because of the telltale scent of the paint. It was faint, undetectable by normal human senses, but his senses weren't exactly normal – he was part cat as of the moment. But what would be the point of asserting that they had the virus? Unless...

Shinichi's eyes shot open. He understood now. They wanted cause fear and panic in the cities they passed over! Somehow, they would make the news public and fool everyone into thinking the virus was aboard the airship and it would explode; in the blatant fear of the virus, the cities would be abandoned by the fleeing citizens. But, he reflected, looking over at the airship's location and the lake of pandemonium below, it seemed that the Red Siamese Cats hadn't spread the fake information yet. It was a good thing that he had taken out the group early. Not to mention, by looking over their goal, the hijackers were actually impersonating the Red Siamese Cats group for the purpose of making it seem like a terrorist attack. The detective mused over these facts momentarily. Then, that meant that they were most likely after the Buddha statues in Nara. Unfortunately for them, their plan hadn't worked. Haha... Shinichi snickered mentally. They lost to a cat. That simple fact made him feel considerably more happy about his current status as a high school detective turned kitten. After all, it would be a rather hefty victory for a domestic feline to defeat a group of seven would-be terrorists. Hehehe... point for the good guys!

…

Ghk...

Shinichi lurched uncomfortably. He really was turning into a Kaito clone, wasn't he? The detective muttered under his breath, resigned. The idiot magician obviously had more sway over contaminating others with his unique personality than he expected. Next thing he knew he'd probably be whipping flowers out of nowhere and dyeing Hakuba's hair random colors of the rainbow with neon variations. Or working as Kaito's accomplice in pranks and KID heists.

…

Shinichi, KID's accomplice for this heist, groaned and slammed his head against a wall. He was doomed, wasn't he?

Hakuba dashed through the halls, dead set on heading to the infirmary. The virus – it was a fake. He hadn't been completely sure, but now he was positive of the fact. It made sense – all of the infected that they had seen so far had a rash on their hands and they all had touched the doorknob to the smoking room. Also, no one else had the rash spread as much as Fujioka, the first victim. And, he had been one of the only the people who had been missing since the beginning of the hijack. Not to mention that the leader had been constantly talking to someone on his cellphone. The British detective skidded to a stop and pulled aside the curtain in the infirmary, revealing a bound and gagged waitress, who had been the second to become infected. Fujioka was nowhere to be seen. His eyes narrowed. It all added up now. Fujioka – he was the boss of the hijacking group. And their goal...

Hakuba ran out and hurriedly rushed to the roof of the airship. He would catch this sinister wannabe thief and put him behind bars for good.

Meanwhile, another high school detective dashed through the halls of the airship, albeit for a different reason. His acute feline hearing had picked up on a screaming Sonoko and a series of shocked gasps. Upon his arrival outside of the lounge, he had straightaway realized that two of the people in the reporter's group had been working with the hijackers – the female reporter and the photographer. They were currently tying up the other passengers in the airship. Both of them were wielding guns. Shinichi gritted his teeth. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to use a gun, but it appeared that there was no other choice. The detective crouched and took aim, making sure to disarm, not cripple for life. The first shot zinged past the male, grazing the tendon of his leg. He collapsed, his leg not able to support his weight and the hidden teen dashed in, kicking the man's weapon away. Shinichi instantly flowed into a snapping high kick at the female and lashed out, kicking the gun from her hands and quickly sending a blow into her solar plexus. The high school detective struck the back of her neck when she crumpled inwards from the hit, knocking her out cold. Suddenly, a shot rang out, a bullet streaking past the disguised Shinichi's face and drawing blood. He whirled around, realizing that the man had grabbed the gun that he had knocked out of the woman's hand. The man grinned nastily and leveled the gun at his head, about to shoot. But the shot would never hit the teen's head. At the moment, Ran flew into action, swinging her leg to gain momentum and slamming her foot into the man's chest. The fake photographer's head snapped backwards and he slumped to the ground, having lost consciousness. "Hah!" Ran smiled, satisfied with her work and turned to face the shocked Russell. "Not bad. Your offensive skills could use some work, though." The karate champion grinned and patted the other teen on the head. Shinichi, disguised as Russell (The waiter Ran met in the beginning.), merely gaped.

On the roof, however, Hakuba wasn't faring as well. He had rather stupidly run to the roof, unarmed but expecting danger. The half-Brit cursed. That would have been something an amateur would have done. How could he compare to Sherlock Holmes when he couldn't even prepare for something as simple as this? (Hakuba, focus on the guy with the gun and don't think about Sherlock Holmes!) Oh, right. He had been preoccupied with his thoughts and now he was going to die. Great.

"Goodbye, nosy detective." Fujioka smirked and aimed his gun at Hakuba's head. "Any last words?"

"Yeah, eat this!" An familiar voice angrily shouted, followed by a dark silhouette arcing downwards. Kaitou KID zoomed down, his glider flying above and KID descending downwards at a devastating speed. (He needed to save Hakuba – who else was he supposed to annoy?) Fujioka meet Kaitou KID's foot. Kaitou KID's foot, meet Fujioka. Hakuba stared, slack-jawed as Fujioka flew back and actually bounced off of the airship a few times before coming to a complete stop. He winced. That looked like it really hurt.

…

Wait a minute... where did Kaitou KID go?

KID dashed towards the lounge and screeched to a halt when he reached the hallway just outside of the room. He took a deep breath and composed himself, pulling back up his trusty poker-face. It wouldn't do for them to see him look rushed! He had a reputation to uphold, after all. He strolled into the room leisurely, taking his time. In his usual gentleman's tone, he addressed the inhabitants of the lounge and bent to grab the Lady Sky when a fist flashed past his face. As expected, he jerked his head back and glanced in horror at said fist, which had embedded itself into the wall. (Who wouldn't be scared?) KID's visage registered terror and complete horror as he followed the arm that was connected to the fist and was met with the furious expression of Ran Mouri. "KID..." She drew out threateningly. KID 'eeped' in fear and dashed, no... _calmly walked_ out of the room (KID never ran from anything in fear!), the Lady Sky in hand. Upon noting that the Lady Sky was gone, the enraged Ran was just about to take chase when a hand clasped her shoulder. She glanced back, only to be met with the chagrined expression of Russell. He transferred her attention to the tied passengers. "We should probably start untying them. Inspector Nakamori looks like he's going to have an aneurism." And, true to what he had said, the inspector's face was beginning to turn an interesting shade of purple.

(Completely pointless ending!)

Shinichi glared at Kaito.

"Coffee. You owe me coffee. I can't buy it as a cat and Hakuba won't give his coffee to me."

The magician stared at the annoyed detective, speechless. "You... you want coffee?" Shinichi looked at him sourly and repeated what he said through gritted teeth. "Yes. I want coffee. Do I need to spell it out for you?"

Kaito looked like he was about to pass out from shock. "Coffee?" He stuttered. The detective glanced at him in disgust. "YES. C-O-F-F-E-E. COFFEE. Do I _need_ to say it again?"

"No..." Kaito muttered faintly. He staggered off in the direction of the cafeteria, completely befuddled as to the priorities of one Shinichi Kudo.

**A/N**

Yay for Detective Conan Movie 14! (4000+ words in this chapter!)

Ran's dad gets to show off some of his more useful skills in this chapter and Hakuba gets to do something cool. Kaito and Shinichi have an alliance, Akako seems to know more than she should. As to why Akako knows so much... she consorts with Lucifer/the devil. And I'm sure we all know that Haibara can be a sadistic she-devil when she wants to be, so I'm pretty sure it all connects somehow... even though she's not in the story yet.

How did Shinichi speak while he was a cat during the takeout of Cat A and B? Kaito did, not Shinichi. Like I said earlier in the chapter, there's a radio hooked into Russell's collar. So the snarky voice was Kaito's voice, not Shinichi's. And Shinichi's amazing martial arts skills – if Ran took karate classes, who's to say Shinichi didn't?

I ran out of coffee creamer, so I had to drink my coffee black. Yeeeuch. I don't understand how Shinichi stands it. And thus, came to be the completely anti-climatic ending/omake. Yay.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Six_

Ran fidgeted slightly, checking her appearance in the mirror. There was a flushing sound and Sonoko exited the stall, sighing happily. She scooted over to Ran quickly, a cheerful smile on her face.

"Mah, Ran,"She began,"did you like the bandages?" Ran stared back at her, befuddled. "Bandages? Wha-" She cut off abruptly and rifled through her purse, pulling out the band-aids. The teenaged girl gasped in surprise. On the edge of the bandage, the words 'Shinichi Love' were written.

"Sonoko!" She scolded the other girl. Sonoko giggled. "Do you like it? I thought you would like to have a reminder of you husband." The Suzuki heiress's eyes sparkled conspiratorially and she grinned deceitfully when Ran flushed. "I-It's nothing like that!" Ran weakly responded back, failing to dispel Sonoko's assumption. Her eyebrows furrowed as a thought suddenly struck her. "Ah-!" She exclaimed. "I gave one of the bandages to one of the crew members when we boarded! What if he thinks that I wrote it?" Sonoko lifted her arms up and waved them back and forth, warding off Ran's worries. "Maa, maa, Ran," She assured, "the words are so tiny, I don't think he even noticed!" She grinned reassuringly. "I'm sure it's alright!" Ran stared back at her skeptically, resigned. "If you say so."

The two girls left the lavatories and strolled towards their rooms. "Eh?" Sonoko turned around to look at Ran, who was heading in the opposite direction. "Ran," Sonoko questioned, "where are you going?" Ran smiled and answered back. "I want to take another look at the Lady Sky. Since there were so many people and otou-san had to go and cause such a commotion, I didn't really get to have a good look at it."

"Well then," the Suzuki heiress began, "You go ahead and do that. I'll meet you later. I'm going to send a message to Makoto. This KID thing is just temporary, so he doesn't need to know!" Sonoko smiled conspiratorially and winked, giggling as she skipped back to her room.

Ran looked back after her friend, laughing slightly at Sonoko's eccentricity. She entered the elevator and headed to the top floor. The elevator dinged as it docked at the top floor and the doors opened smoothly. Ran stepped out and stopped in surprise. "Oh!" She exclaimed, noticing another person standing in front of the case, intently observing it. The stranger turned around upon hearing her footsteps, greeting her. "Hello." Ran tilted her head in confusion and asked haltingly, "Hi... who are you?" The person walked towards her steadily, smiling pleasantly. "I am a waiter on this airship." He said, shifting slightly. "I just came during my break to take a look at the famed Lady Sky." As he spoke, he turned to gaze at the aforementioned jewel before returning his attention back to Ran. Ran regarded the supposed waiter for a moment, her eyes drifting down and noting his appearance. His hair was straight and smooth, almost like Shinichi's, but his was considerably more spiky, but tamed as well. The waiter's face was youthful and she noticed with a start that his eyes were a tilted much like a feline's would and was also a startlingly familiar cerulean blue. Her gaze drifted downward and her eyes widened perceptibly when she saw the band-aid she had given one of the crew members. The teen followed her gaze warily and, with a start, leaned forward to take a closer look at her.

"Hey!"

Ran jerked up to look at the other, startled by his sudden exclamation. "Aren't you that girl that gave me that bandage this morning?" Ran was taken aback. "Y-Yeah..." She stuttered. The boy grinned radiantly, bowing and extending a hand to shake. "Ah, nice to meet you, then. My name is Russell. What's yours?" His eyes sparkled excitedly. Ran looked uncertain as she reached out to shake the offered hand. "Ran. Ran Mouri." She replied back, hesitant. The waiter – Russell – glanced at his watch momentarily. "Oh! I should leave now. My break is almost over." He bowed to her again. "It was nice meeting you again." Russell lifted his hand to wave at her lazily, a warm smile on his face as he leisurely strolled into the elevator. "Bye." The bemused girl stared after him, briefly wondering if the other suffered from some sort of multiple personality disorder.

Russell – no, Shinichi – breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed behind him. That had been too close! He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it and making more spiky and somewhat reminiscent of one Kaito Kuroba's hair. It was just a simple stroke of luck that he had noticed where Ran's gaze was fixated on. Otherwise, he just might have not made it out without being accused of being KID and had to create an alibi. On the bright side, he had gotten a chance to meet and talk to Ran. And it didn't hurt that he hadn't worn a mask and had retained the same appearance as his first disguise, therefore solidifying his alibi. The disguised Shinichi was startled out of his thoughts when Sonoko rushed past, colliding rather painfully with him. The Suzuki heiress responded as expected, angrily scolding him for almost ruining her makeup, of all things. Because, apparently, she had to look perfect for her KID-sama. As he stood there, obediently listening the scolding, his face darkened imperceptibly. Kaito owed him big time for this.

Shinichi glared at Kaito sourly. Kaito drew back, sweating nervously. "Wha-What?" He stammered intelligently. The thief winced as Shinichi's glare simply intensified. He cowered, terrified of bringing down Shinichi's wrath on himself. (What? People died around this guy on a daily basis! He had a right to be terrified!) "I didn't actually plan for that to happen!" He blurted out suddenly, huddling in a corner and mentally sobbing. "Well, I would have thought an internationally wanted thief like you would at least account for any possible alterations! Plus, I had to sit through Sonoko's rant about you – Kaitou KID – for _fifteen_ minutes!" Shinichi's eyes flashed – Kaito personally thought that the detective looked like some sort of vengeful avenging angel or, more likely, death itself personified. The normally amiable detective's head abruptly and slowly swiveled around to face him, his expression dark and ominous. Kaito's eyes widened and he quickly clapped his hands over his mouth. Did he actually say that out loud? The panicked Kaito began to flail his arms wildly, babbling apologies and hiding from the other teen's barely concealed rage. Shincihi took a deep breath, attempting to restrain the cold fury flowing through his veins. But the terrified thief's panicked gibbering was not helping in any way.

Shinichi fixed Kaito with a deadpan glare. "Kaito. Shut up."

Kaito abruptly halted the flow of words and slew of gibbering apologies. Shinichi sighed for what seemed to be the twentieth time that day and ran his hand through his hair again, shifting the locks of hair tiredly and messing it up more than it already was.

"I guess I shouldn't blame you; after all, I really did want to see Ran again." A tentative smile blossomed across the teen detective's face. "Speaking of which, I should thank you for that. I know you were planning to be disguised as a waiter on your own." As quickly as his expression had changed to blissfully happy, it abruptly switched to considerably annoyed. "But if I have to sit through another one of Sonoko's spouts of admiration about Kaitou KID, I will beat you to death with a soccer ball. And you should know how capable I am of doing so." Shinichi accented this with a vengeful glare. Kaito whimpered and nodded his assent. He was never going to piss Shinichi off ever again. The detective was scary when provoked!

Ran seated herself at one of the tables, quietly thinking. The waiter she had met – was he actually Kaitou KID? There really wasn't a very large possibility that the attendant she had met this morning would somehow also be a waiter on the airship. She bit her lip, running over the theory in her mind. Could it be? That Russell was actually Kaitou KID in disguise? Ran's thoughts were interrupted as the said mysterious waiter entered the room to serve the dessert. Sonoko exclaimed in delight when her plate of cake was set in front of her. "Wah~! It looks so good!" She bit into a piece of the pastry, pleased. "What's this in between the whipped cream?" Ran stared at the aforementioned waiter thoughtfully, doubtful about his true identity. Another pleased exclamation erupted beside her. "Ah! It's blackberry!" Sonoko looked up, distracted from her fascination with the cake and noticed Ran's distracted visage. "Hm? Ran?" The addressed girl snapped out of her thoughts with a start. "Huh?" The Suzuki heiress made a sly face as she observed the object of Ran's thoughts. "Moving on already, hm? See something you like?" Ran flushed a dark red and rebuked Sonoko's observation, thoroughly flustered. "Sonoko!" She scolded. "It's nothing like that!" The karate champion reigned in her wildly rocketing blushes and attempted to regain some composure. "It's just that – he's the person I gave one of those bandages to!" Sonoko suddenly looked less teasing and a bit more serious. "Really? Did he notice?" Ran turned away, blushing slightly. "No, I don't think so. If he did, he hasn't said anything about it." Unnoticed, the object of their conversation sauntered over to offer drinks and refreshments.

"Would any of you ladies like anything else?"

The unexpected question from the very person they had been talking about shocked the two girls substantially. They both nearly jumped out of their chairs when his voice drifted from beside their table. "A-Ah – nothing, I'm fine." The girls stammered out negatives, flushing because of the fact that he had almost overheard their conversation and intruded upon it. The poor boy looked rather confused as he walked away, if his baffled glances back at them were any sign. Said perplexed waiter also nearly tripped over the stairs as he strode away. He caught himself, luckily, before he faceplanted at the feet of one Nakamori Ginzou and made a fool out of himself. Slightly ruffled, the waiter unsteadily carried himself out of the door, amid the muffled snickers.

Shinichi barely managed to keep a hold on his composure and pride. The flustered teen couldn't believe that he had actually fallen on his face – and at the feet of the leader of the KID task force to boot. Luckily, he had made it through with his pride still intact, although he did receive a considerable dent in his ego. Had Kaito been around to witness the event, he would have never lived it down. Shincihi groaned. Could things get any worse? (Bad idea, bad idea! Whenever that phrase comes to light something _will _go wrong!)

Almost immediately after the thought ran through his head, Kaito contacted him, telling that it had been revealed by a anonymous call that a virus had been let loose in the smoking room of the airship and two people were already infected. Shinichi stood, bewildered, in the men's bathroom slack jawed and wide eyed at the report. What the heck? Was he some sort of attractor to bad luck or something? (-cough, cough- YES.) The detective slammed his head against the bathroom stall and proceeded to knock the rhetorical voice out of his mind with a series of echoing thunks. He was not a bad luck charm! A sudden palpitation ran through his body and reminded him why he had locked himself in the stall. Shinichi slipped a hand into the waiter's vest to pull out a small water soluble pill. This was the temporary cure he was using, although it wasn't completely a cure either. It had come to his attention that ginseng triggered the change to human, although it was somewhat altered. The last time he had transformed into his human self for a few hours, he had cat ears and a tail, coupled along with not being able to speak. And that had just been with a miniscule, diluted amount of ginseng tea. This pill was a kind of ginseng in its full, almost natural form. He had Akako, the weird crazy witch lady, to thank for it, although he would do so grudgingly.

Suddenly, Kaito's voice sounded in his ear, whispering urgently. The airship had been hijacked by a terrorist group called the Red Siamese Cats. Suddenly, the seizures that signified the trigger between the change from human to cat started. After a few agonizing moments, it was over. The lithe feline wriggled out of the mound of clothes, staring at them in dissatisfaction. Not more than a minute later, he was tucking them away in a pouch that had supposedly appeared out of nowhere. Said pouch disappeared to wherever in came from in small, soundless cloud of smoke. With that, Russell bounded out from underneath the bathroom stall and stealthily slipped through the halls towards the lounge where everyone was located.

Shinichi couldn't help an ironic thought from floating through his mind – that a cat would be taking down the Red Siamese Cats.

**A/N**

Everything is winding up to the defeat of the terrorist group. It's almost the same plot as the fourteenth Detective Conan movie, but here, we have a cat working with Kaitou KID without Conan's fancy gadgets. The odds are tipped in the favor of the cat working with Kaitou KID, quite obviously. After all, the Red Siamese Cats just have guns, hostages, protective clothing, guns, weapons, sharp stuff, big machine guns and guns of other sizes... and did I mention guns? While KID and Russell have the element of surprise and cat instincts on their side... ah, who am I kidding? The scales are tipped in the Red Siamese Cats' favor. But hey, Russell's a cat, isn't he? Maybe that will count for something at least. Whoo! Go Russell! We all have faith in you! ...Right?

Oh yeah. -bows with a flourish- Thank you for the constructive criticism, for those of you that reviewed. It really opened my eyes to other ways to specify and continue my writings. And my writer's block was scared off. I don't think it's coming back anytime soon.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Eight_

Ran stood, sighing loudly and stretching. "Is everyone alright?"

Her question was answered with unanimous affirmations and nods, excepting Nakamori-keibu, who dashed out of the room while bellowing out curses and assertions that he would catch, quote 'that bastard KID'. Behind Ran, Russell facepalmed and groaned audibly. The teenager looked up from his hands when KID contacted him through the earpiece that he still had lodged in his ear, telling him that Hakuba would need some medical attention and preferably some help back into the airship. Hakuba? Shinichi quickly recovered and was about to quietly slip out of the room when a hand landed solidly on his shoulder. He made a small terrified noise and slowly turned his head around, apprehensive of whoever had felt the need to talk to him. However, instead of the angered face of whoever wanted to accuse him, there was a smirking but foreboding expression of one Sonoko Suzuki. She pulled him towards her, smiling deceitfully and whispering into his ear.

"You know, you kind of remind me of Ran's husband..."

Russell was about to mentally began to break down and enter full panic mode when the Suzuki heiress continued speaking. "But since he's apparently gone and died on Ran, I think that you'll make a good replacement for now." With that cryptic and threatening decision, she grabbed the terrified boy by the jacket and forcefully dragged him over to the clueless Ran.

"Ran!" Sonoko called out perkily. The addressed girl turned around. "Yes?" Sonoko pulled at the boy she was dragging, only for him to come with little resistance. "Huh?" She was met with an empty jacket, the teen having fled a few seconds ago. "Geh... that kid is just asking for a beating!" The Suzuki heiress gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She blinked and looked at the confused Ran innocently. "What?"

"Gyah!" Shinichi dashed down the hallways to help Hakuba out – and hide from Sonoko. He was never going within ten feet of that lady if he could avoid it. When she was in one of her matchmaking moods, there was no stopping to whatever lengths she would go to in order to get the two unfortunate people together. And didn't exactly help that she was trying to get him together with Ran as a replacement for Shinichi – he was Shinichi darn it! Well... she didn't exactly know that, but still!

Shinichi was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he barely avoided colliding face first into the door to the roof. He screeched to a halt and yanked the door open. There, he spotted a wounded Hakuba attempting to limp his way to the door, but failing rather miserably. A few feet behind him, a swirly eyed Fujioka lay sprawled across the top of the airship, flying KIDs fluttering about his head. Figuratively, of course. One KID was more than enough. He heaved a tremulous sigh and went about the tedious task of tying the bad guy up and making sure he didn't wake up before the police got to him. Then, he approached Hakuba and tentatively offered a hand to help the British detective up. As expected, Hakuba accepted the help and shakily stood, wincing at the pain in his leg. With Shinichi supporting him, he limped to the door and down to the infirmary. Once there, Shinichi helped the other detective sit and rummaged through the cupboards to find the first aid kit. He carefully bandaged up the other teen's wounds and, serving as a human crutch, helped Hakuba back to the lounge to rest. After he assisted Hakuba in lowering himself on to one of the sofas, he quickly departed. No sense in staying longer; he might figure out who he really was!

A sudden bout of heart-wrenching pain immediately prompted Shinichi to sprint towards the restrooms as quickly as possible. If he transformed back to a cat in the middle of the floor, he was as good as dead!

Russell sighed. It had been nice being human and all, but it made it him twice as reluctant to have to return to becoming a cat. He almost wanted to continue taking the pills just so he wouldn't have to change forms ever again. But if he did, then those men in black would find out and endanger everyone. It almost wasn't fair... But it was his fault, anyway, for being so full of himself and so careless. Otherwise he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. He sighed again and padded down the hallways. Really, he would have thought that antidote would have lasted longer. It lasted almost half a day the last time he had used it. Why did it wear out so quickly this time? The cat shook his head. No need to worry about that now. Right now, he had to worry about not being seen by Hakuba. If he saw that Russell was on the airship, then...

His musings were abruptly cut off by a fangirlish squeal. Russell slowly turned and looked upwards apprehensively, terrified. Don't tell me that – ! Any other thoughts after that were discarded in favor of escape plans and panicked opinions jumbling around in his head. This was not good! Sonoko Suzuki scooped up the panicking kitten and squished it to her bosom, squealing in her high pitched voice.

"Wah~! So cute!"

Russell wildly clawed at the air, attempting to escape, eyes wide in fear. Not again!

"Eh?" Ran stepped into the hall, curious of Sonoko's joyful cries.

"Ran! Look! Isn't it the cutest little thing you've ever seen?" The other girl stared at the kitten inquisitively, feeling somewhat sorry for it as she watched it try to escape her friend's grasp. After seeing the kitten send a familiar blue-eyed gaze on her, pleading for help, she caved.

"Ne, Sonoko, can I hold the kitten?" Sonoko turned to face her, smiling happily. "Sure, Ran!" She deposited the kitten in Ran's arms, patting it on the head. The kitten looked at her gratefully, its appearance somewhat frazzled from Sonoko's cuddling.

"Oy, what's with all the racket?" A familiar voice drifted from the lounge, sounding rather confused and a bit exasperated. Oh no... Hakuba! Russell scrambled from his comfortable (Although he would never admit it.) perch in Ran's arms and dashed to find a hiding place. Not good, not good! What next? CRASH. The panicked kitten collided solidly with the lounge sofa. Stumbling backwards, the kitten wavered back and forth before collapsing, swirly eyed. Ow... Why did he keep on running into things? Unless, the inanimate objects had a grudge against him and were forcing him to crash into into them purposely. That was probably it. The delusional kitten sluggishly looked up at the sound of worried voices. Ooh... flying Kaitou KIDs! And sofas, too!

...

That was normal, right?

Oh well, who cared? The disoriented feline drifted off on a short improptu trip to la-la land. Yay~!

Hakuba sighed and petted the unconscious kitten on the head. The feline purred quietly, rolling over and shifting slightly. What was Russell doing here? He could have sworn he had left the kitten at home with Watson. Despite the fact that Watson was a hawk and could have eaten a kitten if he had wanted to, he doubted something like that would ever happen. After all, Watson was properly trained and Russell wasn't really all that small. The kitten was actually surprisingly large for a typical cat his age. While most kittens were roughly larger than the size of an adult's palm, Russell almost qualified for a full grown cat. Russell's happy sigh startled the detective out of his thoughts. Hakuba stared, wide eyed, at the contentedly purring kitten in his lap. Cats could sigh? He never knew that... Then again, Russell never really fit the standard of normal and seemed to break the boundaries of typical expectations – defying even reality itself – much like Kaito Kuroba did on a daily basis. Not to mention that one time Russell turned in a human/cat hybrid. But that had been a dream or some sort of delusion, hadn't it? It simply wasn't logical. Then again, neither was Kuroba.

The kitten stirred, shifting and slowly waking up. Russell sleepily yawned and blearily looked up at a face. Brownish-blond hair framed an amused looking visage – Hakuba! GAH! The cat leaped into the air, his body moving before his mind caught up. Unfortunately, since Hakuba had been leaning over him, he had simply sprang and smashed himself against the British detective's face. Hakuba jerked back in shock, yelping in pain. On the floor, a dazed Russell lay in a heap, once again staring at swirly stars and flying Kaitou KIDs. (Minus the sofas.) The auburn haired detective clutched his nose and fixed a blatant stare at the kitten, completely unamused. Just what had possessed the cat to abruptly jump up like that?

Hakuba muttered under his breath, nursing his bruised nose. No use thinking about that now – he was going to hurt Kuroba when he got back; that blasted magician was supposed to watch the kitten and make sure that he wouldn't get into trouble. But he really shouldn't have expected anything; he already knew that Kuroba was the Kaitou KID! He didn't have any evidence yet, but the fact that Russell was here only backed up his theory that Kaito Kuroba was the KID. He would catch the infernal thief and prove it!

Russell shuddered. Hakuba had a really weird expression on his face right now – at least, it was weird for Hakuba. That kind of facial expression didn't suit him at all; it looked more in place on a crazed lunatic's face. But now that he thought about it, it wasn't completely strange to see on his face. After all, although Hakuba wasn't a crazed lunatic (He was about 93.6% sure that Hakuba wasn't a loon. The other 6.3%, he wasn't too sure about.), he definitely fit the category of a crazed Sherlock Holmes fan. So it all connected some way or the other in the end, right?

…

Well, maybe not. But it didn't really matter. He couldn't really call Hakuba loony when he was reckless enough to jump off of a building to catch Kaitou KID. And Akako was probably crazier than either of them would ever be. Or saner. It really depended on the point of view.

Suddenly, a random mental image of Akako with Hakuba's face chanting to Lucifer and sacrificing something popped into his head. Russell shrieked in horror and shook his head rapidly back and forth to clear the image from his mind, thoroughly disturbed. What the heck? He whimpered and put his paws over his eyes, hoping that the mental image would permanently disappear from his memories forever. That was just wrong! He sobbed mentally. _I think I just fried what was left of my brain cells._

Hakuba paused in his ecstatic thoughts of capturing KID and putting the obnoxious thief behind bars to stare down at the pitifully whimpering kitten at his feet. He blinked a few times, bewildered, when the kitten began to rhythmically bang its head against the floor. What exactly had happened to make the typically reasonable feline downgrade to the point of feeling the need to bash its brains out? He sighed and rubbed his head wearily. Right. Kaito Kuroba. He _had _left the kitten with an unpredictable magician with a penchant for pranks. No wonder Russell ran off...

Wait a minute...

Kaito was definitely KID, despite the fact that he didn't have any evidence so Russell wouldn't have needed to be brought here so that meant that –

"GYAH...!" Hakuba abruptly shot out of his chair, tugging at his hair in frustration. As quickly as he had stood up, he dropped back into the chair hissing in pain. Right. Wounded ankle. Bad idea.

…

Now what was he thinking about again?

**A/N**

I know. Basically a filler chapter, really. Or maybe an end to the Detective Conan Movie 14: The Lost Ship in the Sky arc thingy. But I basically went through with this chapter to clarify some details about the story and answer a few questions from the reviews. Meh. You'll see what I have in store for Neko no Triad soon.

Yes, I realize that Shinichi's become rather OOC compared to canon. Or not. Conan's personality is pretty similar, albeit more serious at times. But then again, we have influences from Kaito Kuroba – who is Kaitou KID – and transformation to a different species. So I think I'm entitled to a little freedom in adjusting his personality a bit...

And yeah, this chapter is a bit short, I guess. I'm still working out the kinks in future chapters of this story. Not to mention that I've been dealing with idea overloads that really don't have any relevance to the story as of right now. -headdesks- I'll deal with it soon enough.

Also, thank you to those of you who reviewed, I will indeed take your ideas into consideration. So far, the ones I've received (including constructive criticism) have helped rather greatly in the continuation of this story. Thank you~! (I would name them, but I think that would take too long. And most people don't like staring at lists of names with responses to their reviews for half of the chapter.)

**EDIT: **Revised as of 7/13/11. Some parts of this was confusing and has now been fixed. Also... I really need a beta reader.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Nine_

Hakuba groaned and palmed his face, muttering about idiot magicians and weighing the pros and cons of murdering said idiot magician. However, despite the pros heavily outweighing the cons, being stuck in a jail cell for the rest of his life really didn't appeal to him, as well as sullying his perfectly clean record. Besides, he'd probably fail anyway, especially due to the prankster's freakishly unnatural good luck. Stupid karma. Just what exactly had the retarded thief done to warrant such luck? He grumbled under his breath. It just wasn't fair.

Speaking of things not being fair...

He watched in amusement as Aoko ran past, furiously swinging a mop at Kaito and shrieking in fury, completely intent on bludgeoning the magician to death. The detective sweatdropped. Never mind. Karma definitely balanced out in this case.

His thoughts briefly wandered to his cat, Russell. The feline had taken to slumbering in his schoolbag once every week. The first few times, he had scooped up the bag and sent the kitten flying on to the floor with a painful sounding thump, soon followed by an angry squall and a set of claws sinking their way into his leg as he rushed to the door. It was strange, since the cat usually kept to himself and out of the way. Now, it seemed like Russell was more irritable and drowsy. There were a few periods of time where the feline would happily bounce about the room, mewing perkily and, in general, acting more like a real kitten. It was especially odd when he had caught Russell observing the mirror in what appeared to be blatant fascination. He was pretty sure that the cat had seen the mirror plenty of times before, as it had been in his house for months before he had found the kitten.

Lost in his thoughts, Hakuba didn't pay attention to his surroundings and was abruptly snapped out of his musings in time to hear a 'look out!' before he collided rather painfully with a dark skinned teen.

"Oy! Watch where you're going, ahou!" The teen angrily yelled at him in an Osakan accent.

Miffed, Hakuba responded back in the same way, albeit more politely. "I believe you were the one who crashed into me, _sir._"

Mentally, he cursed out the rude Osakan native. Blasted hothead – didn't his mother teach him any manners? He didn't realize he was glaring rather nastily at the teen until he opened his big mouth again.

"Stop starin' ahou!"

Hakuba's head snapped up. His eyes narrowed. "Who are you to be calling me names? Tch... I'd like to know the name of the rude imbecile that has just ruined my day."

The other boy turned an interesting shade of red as a vein throbbed in his temple.

"Th' name's Heiji Hattori, ahou!" The teen accented this with heated glare. "The Great Detective of the West!" The Osakan seemed proud about it, especially with the way he seemed to puff himself up as he said the title.

Hakuba stared coolly back, retorting smoothly. "Saguru Hakuba. Detective." He smirked, seeing that his icy response had ruffled the other teen's feathers, eliciting another fiery shout.

"An' no one's better than me, not even that so called great detective of the east!"

Hakuba frowned. Great Detective of the East? He remembered hearing something about that – the modern day Sherlock Holmes, Shinichi Kudo or something. And he highly doubted that this hot tempered buffoon would be anything close to that level of intelligence. Especially when one considered the Osakan teen's actions and manner of speech, it brought up a lot of doubt and uncertainty about his supposed occupation. He eyed the dark skinned boy suspiciously through half lidded eyes, having tuned out the other boy angrily yelling as background noise.

"Riiiiight..." He drawled out, interrupting the Osakan's furious rant. "Sure you are."

Hattori's face turned a lovely shade of purple and he looked like his eyes were about to burst out of his head. And then the dam broke.

"YOU AHOU! #$%^*!" Hattori raged violently, bellowing expletives and disturbing the general public. A annoyed mother fixed a rather dirty glare at the Osakan before dragging her child away, hands on his ears and muttering about how disrespectful teenagers were these days. Hakuba sighed and decided to try to calm the irate teen, mostly because of the creepy old lady glaring at them darkly from across the street. He shuddered slightly and reached a hand out slowly towards the furiously ranting Osakan teen and smacked him, not too gently, over the head.

"OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR, AHOU?" Heiji roared at the British detective, enraged. Hakuba blinked a few times, looking frazzled as his hair was blown backwards and he appeared to have just braved a blizzard. He shook his head rapidly and smoothed out his hair, coughing slightly as he regained his composure. The detective cleared his throat and stated quietly, "You are disturbing the general public." He then waved a hand at the glaring old lady. "And the elderly lady across the street does not seem to approve. Quite frankly, she's starting to scare me." Heiji scowled and turned around, abruptly spinning back around and swallowing nervously when he caught sight of said old lady's dirty glare. The dark skinned teen's actions could be described as scared or possibly sheepish and perhaps a tad bit scared. Hakuba personally thought it was rather funny.

"Ehehehe..." Hattori laughed unnaturally. "Is that normal for this place?"

Hakuba fixed the other with a bland stare. "Just her." Heiji was about to retort when the British detective added, "And her sixteen cats." The Osakan's jaw dropped. The Ekoda detective frowned slightly. "Close your mouth. You're going to catch flies. Heiji's mouth snapped shut with an audible click. "Erm..."

Anything else that Hattori was about to say was abruptly cut off when a cat lazily ambled over and , rebounding off of a few objects, perched itself on the Osakan detective's head. Hakuba noted in amusement that the feline that was currently sprawled in the dark skinned teen's hair was indeed Russell. Heiji, snapping out of his shock induced stupor, realized that there was a cat on his head and yelled, swatting at his head. Russell 'mrred' in disapproval and gracefully leaped off, completely undetected, leaving the teen to wildly flail around and smack himself as he tried to dislodge the cat that he still believed was on his head. The aforementioned cat – Russell – yawned slightly and trotted over to the flailing detective. One loud meow was all it took to startle the Osakan and cause him to trip over his own feet, landing with a painful thud. The kitten blandly bent down to stare into the fallen teenager's eyes and, to Hakuba's surprise, stuck its tongue out with a 'pbbt' in the Osakan's face. That was a strangely human behavior for the cat. Then again, he mused, Russell never did fit the standards of normal. Was Russell really even a cat in the first place? Hakuba allowed himself a small chuckle at Russell, who had flipped up his tail and turned his nose up into the air, making a noise that vaguely sounded like a 'hmph' of disapproval and trotting away. His amusement simply increased at the hothead's expression – he was gaping at the cat and looked like someone had tried to knock him out with a bouquet of daisies.

"What kind of ahou's cat is that?" Hattori grumbled angrily. After the other teen had collected himself and stood back up, Hakuba decided to drop the bomb. "That's my cat, Russell." He watched as the Osakan began spluttering and spouting random gibbering exclamations of surprised shock. This was highly amusing – perhaps this was why Kuroba enjoyed playing pranks so much.

…

Ghk.

There was obviously something wrong with him today if he was relating to Kuroba of all people today. After that realization, Hakuba proceeded to try and knock himself unconscious against a nearby wall much to the confusion of passing pedestrians.

Meanwhile, Heiji whirled around walked a few paces forward to escape this weird town and its crazy inhabitants and smacked face first into the nearest pole. Hakuba turned back around and paused in his attempts at knocking himself out in time to see the Osakan collide with the pole. Russell seemed to have found the Osakan detective's stumbling and reeling to be hilarious as he toppled backwards and landed flat on his butt in the road. Had he been human, the kitten probably would have been mirthfully cackling on the ground in a fit of laughter, especially if Hattori had gotten himself run over at this point. Personally, he agreed that it would have been nice to see the hothead get knocked down a few pegs. He most likely would have laughed too.

Any person walking past at the moment would have been momentarily baffled at the sight of the dark skinned teen sitting in the road looking like he had been struck dumb and a foreign teenager repeatedly smacking his head against a wall. (Hakuba had noticed that he was starting to think like Kaito Kuroba again and had resumed his attempt at bashing his brains out.) The nearby kitten collapsed on the ground and sounded like it was laughing certainly didn't help one's sanity either.

An enraged Aoko randomly dashed past swinging a mop and chasing a terrified Kaito across the street.

A few minutes later (Maybe hours? He wasn't really sure, especially with his pounding headache.), Hakuba found himself wandering around his house, Russell in tow. The displeased cat was meowing and pawing at his sleeves, demanding to be put down _now _or else there would be hell to pay. He complied and set the feline down, Russell bounding from his arms and perching himself on the couch, fur ruffled. Perhaps it was because of his temporary stupor or the headache, but for a moment, it seemed that there was another teen sitting on the couch, glancing at him with confused blue eyes under feathery chocolate brown hair. Hakuba blinked and gaped, shaking his head back and forth rapidly to disperse the image. The teen dissolved into mist and he found himself staring into the worried blue eyes of his cat. What the – ? He could have sworn that the previously imagined teen and the cat were one and same. He scrutinized the cat, noting the vaguely human like behavior of the feline. Just who was Russell really?

A pair of sapphire eyes gazed at him uneasily and a faintly worried mew soon shook Hakuba out of his musings. His stare transferred to the disquieted expression of the subject of his thoughts. Russell had padded over quietly, eying him warily and (seemingly) wondering what was going on. It was as if he had sensed the mood and deduced exactly what Hakuba was thinking. And for some reason, he was nervous that Hakuba was straying towards that conclusion – perhaps it was the truth?

Russell shied away from Hakuba's intense stare. This wasn't good. If he was found out now– ! The results would not be very good. In this case, just what exactly could happen? There were thousands of different possibilities and reactions towards something as impossible as turning into a cat. And to top it off, his conscience and detective pride kept nagging at him for helping a thief. That, and the fact that he had been sitting on his furry rear and endlessly sleeping for the past few days. It just didn't seem to be very moral. Plus, when did he stop trying to return to his original life?

…

Well, besides the fact that he was supposed to be dead, but still!

Unnoticed, Hakuba quietly sidled up to the distracted kitten and lightly tapped it on the head, curious about the feline's abnormal stillness. As expected from anyone who was feeling rather paranoid, Russell sprang up in the air, yowling in shock. Hakuba fell backwards, shouting in complete shock, completely surprised and unprepared for the cat's overly strong reaction. He clutched a hand to his chest, breathing heavily – Nah, he was definitely hyperventilating. "Dear lord!" Hakuba blurted. "Nearly gave me a heart attack..." Russell stared up oddly at the half-Brit, a perturbed expression on his face. Human-like expressions... Well, there was another reason to add to the list of Why Russell Can't Really Be A Cat.

**A/N**

Gack. I think I've temporarily lost track of just where this story was supposed to go. Excuse me for a moment while I renew my inspiration. And it seems that I've also started to attempt to write another fic(s).

Ahem.

Well, say hello to Heiji Hattori, the resident hothead. Hakuba doesn't really seem to like him very much. And the feeling seems to be mutual.

This chapter is late due to exams at school and inspirational difficulties. I'll be able to write smoothly once I figure out where Russell wandered off to in my head.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Ten_

"It is time." A voice echoed dramatically, booming and filling the entire area. The occupants of the room shifted uncomfortably and glanced at one another nervously.

"Hey, do you think he's really going to do it?" One of the students whispered to the occupant of the desk beside him. A sudden plume of smoke interrupted the other student's answer as the room was flooded with showers of confetti and random pool inflatables. (Absolutely no fish, quite obviously.)

As the occupants of the room were left to deal with the after-effects and chaos of the prank, a certain magician effortlessly leapfrogged over the masses, going from desk to desk before settling on the one in front of Hakuba.

"Whatcha doing, Bakuba?" Kaito ignored the occupant of the desk's disgruntled squawk and carried on his friendly conversation (If one could call it that...) with the half-Brit.

The detective snorted in disapproval, barely offering the magician a mere glance.

"Of course you'd be the one to come up with a silly nickname. What next; are you going to rename my cat?"

Kaito pretended to look thoughtful, looking pensively up in the air and switching his gaze to said cat lazily sprawled over Hakuba's desk. "Hm..."

He abruptly grinned, his smile splitting his face. "You know what, that's a great idea!" He raised his hand and waved it wildly, announcing the new name for the kitten.

"From today on, I dub thee... Mini-me!" Russell looked up from his position on the desk to meow blearily at the teen and dropped back face-down. Hakuba flicked his eyes from his cat back to Kaito.

"I do not think that Russell approves." Hakuba stated monotonously.

Kaito flapped his hand at detective. "Pshaw... I'm sure he loves the name. He's probably tired, as expressive and boring as you are." He scooped up the kitten, Russell barely protesting, and clutched him to his chest. "I bet you'd rather live with me instead of this stick in the mud, right?"

Russell flopped bonelessly and tiredly meowed in response. Both teens stared down at the cat.

"..."

"Was that a yes or a no?"

Shinichi eyed the two teens, callously brushing off their confusion and propping his head up on Kaito's arm. Just what exactly was he supposed to do now? He didn't have any leads on the organization that shrunk him and he wasn't getting any closer to a cure. Although there was a temporary one, he had already begun to notice the slight miniscule decrease of time he remained human each time he took the medicine.

Shinichi groaned and slammed his head repeatedly against Kaito's arm, startling the magician and almost sending himself towards a painful meeting with the ground. He ignored the bewildered looks that Hakuba sent him in favor of attempting to beat his brains out. Never mind the fact that this would probably give the British detective another plausible reason to why he couldn't really be a cat, because this was completely worth it, mostly because his current situation didn't seem to be getting any better. He was still a cat, the cure was only temporary, and he was becoming immune to said cure. Which meant that one day, he was going to be stuck as a cat forever.

…

This really wasn't helping his morale at all.

Shinichi slouched back and grumpily glared at Hakuba. Why did the oh-so logical half-Brit have to be so darned perceptive? He already had more than enough problems on his plate; having to worry about protecting his identity from an esteemed detective just made it twice as hard to deal with them. Not to mention that there was a lack of interesting things to do; no challenging cases or even KID heists.

He was basically bored out of his mind. If nothing interesting happened soon, he would be forced to create his own entertainment: helping Kaito annoy the hell out of Hakuba. But he highly doubted that would last very long in terms of amusement and Hakuba'd probably see it as another reason or piece of evidence of him not truly being a cat.

Although... it still would be fun. To an extent.

Specifically, until Hakuba lost his temper and started cursing Kaito out with the most colorful language he could think of. Which typically included the word 'bloody' and various other curses. It was pretty funny to see how many different shades Hakuba's face could change when he was annoyed.

"–do you think he's alright? I mean, he's not moving, even when I shook him..."

Shinichi caught the last bit of Kaito's worried inquiry – and abruptly felt nauseous as Kaito rapidly shook him back and forth again.

Hakuba glanced at the swirly eyed and very queasy looking kitten and angrily swiped at Kaito, yelling at him.

"So god help me, Kaito, if you just _killed_ Russell from all that rough and _completely_ unnecessary shaking, I will personally murder you with my own hands– "

Finally over the nauseous feeling, Shinichi groaned – or at least as much of a groan a cat could achieve – and deftly squirmed out of Kaito's grip, gracefully landing on the floor with a dignified air.

He petulantly glared up at the prankster and self-proclaimed magician and whipped around, stalking away to seat himself beside Hakuba.

The half-Brit paused, as if he were weighing the pros and cons of it, and then gently lifted the kitten off of the ground and cradled him in his arms. Russell started for a second, but quickly calmed down when he realized that it wasn't Kaito or some other random overenthusiastic person (cough, cough, SONOKO) picking him up.

As Hakuba held the cat, an idea slowly dawned on him. It was stupid, crazy, and would never work – but with Kaitou KID's exception from the law of reality, it probably would.

This could just reveal the identity of the Kaitou KID and possibly give him an insight into who Russell really was.

Although he wasn't positive, Russell's human form most likely looked something like Kaito. And the kitten's surprising intelligence and ability to bring his attention to important clues, he was obviously someone with a high IQ – maybe a detective?

More importantly, in the past, Russell had come very close to capturing the Kaitou KID. So, there was a chance that another person who had done the same thing and had disappeared recently existed out there.

" –akuba! Hakuba!"

Hakuba quickly snapped out of his epiphany and whipped his head to face the owner of the voice.

"What?" He snapped, annoyed at being distracted from his new and brilliant plan.

A worried looking Kaito stared back, unnerved by the wide grin that had been steadily growing on Hakuba's face, unbeknownst to its owner.

"Uh... Hakuba, are you alright?"

Hakuba scowled. "Of course I'm alright! Why wouldn't I be?"

"...if you're sure." Kaito croaked out with a disturbed expression, one eye twitching madly.

Below, Russell appeared to retain the same expression as the magician. A happy Hakuba was not very good for one's health.

Hakuba glowered unhappily at the duo. Couldn't he be happy without being looked at oddly for at least once in his life?

The detective muttered under his breath and grumpily waited for school to end. He couldn't wait to leave Kuroba and his bloody eccentricity behind.

Russell bounded ahead cheerfully and glanced back at Hakuba, meowing joyfully. The half-brit allowed a fond smile to creep onto his lips. It was times like this where he could forget his suspicion of the kitten and watch the cat act normally – dare he say, _cutely_?

He watched as the feline happily chased after a white butterfly and chuckled when the kitten was unable to keep up with the evasive insect's acrobatic fluttering and collided with a telephone pole.

For some reason, it reminded him of a KID heist. He wasn't sure why, but perhaps it had to do with attending one too many KID heists.

Hakuba quickly shook his head back and forth rapidly.

Okay, maybe he was thinking too much. That probably didn't have anything to do with it. Nonetheless, he did need to finish some research to find out who Russell could be. He did have some leads, although it wasn't solid evidence. But either way, his deductions could prove to be fruitful.

"Meow?" Russell pawed questioningly at Hakuba's pant leg, eyes innocently wide in genuine confusion.

The British detective paused and bit his lip, twitching slightly.

…

Forget appearances, he was going to hug the kitten anyway. His reputation would hold.

Russell squeaked.

"WHAT?" Nakamori all but shouted at Hakuba.

The inspector flailed his arms irritatedly in the detective's unamused face.

"Just _what_ kind of a stupid idea is that?"

Hakuba sighed. "It's a perfectly imaginable idea, keibu. All of our other more rational ideas have never worked and the only person to have nearly caught the thief was some other new detective from another prefecture." The half-Brit pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off a stress headache before continuing.

"Considering the KID's uncanny luck and obvious reality bending personality, this just might be the key to his capture."

The inspector scowled and glared at Hakuba, muttering curses.

"Do as you like, but the Task Force will not participate in that ludicrous plot of yours." Nakamori jabbed his finger threateningly at the young detective's face. "And you'll regret it when Kaitou KID is arrested by me!"

The keibu accented his empty statement with a glower and stormed away.

Hakuba stared questioningly after the irritable inspector.

"Uh... yeah. Good luck with that."

The keibu abruptly turned around and, for a second, Hakuba was worried that the man had actually heard his sarcastic statement. He wasn't particularly looking forward to having his eardrums hammered by another rant about capturing KID.

"Oh... and keep your damnable cat away from the Task Force!" Nakamori stomped back into the surveillance room.

Russell, almost about leap onto one of the chairs in the room, froze halfway through his jump and crashed solidly on to the ground. He hopped up, seemingly unhurt in any way by the fall and angelically trotted back to Hakuba as if he hadn't been trying to interfere with the heist.

He snorted. And everyone apparently thought Russell was a completely normal cat.

The detective stooped and picked up Russell to head back towards the heist location. He confidently strode through the looming hallways and entered into a spacious room. In the center, set on a velvet pillow and sealed in a glass display case, was the Moonlight's Angel.

According to legend, the jewel was supposedly magic and could bring countless power and fortune to its wielder. Also, the jewel had been reported to actually contain an angel, which was only visible in the moonlight, thus the name Moonlight's Angel.

The half-Brit shook his head. It was just a silly superstition. There was absolutely no way that could be true. However, the important thing was that it was Kaitou KID's heist target and it was necessary to protect it from the thief.

"Are you ready then, Russell?"

The kitten's unblinking blue stare held his gaze in response. After countless seconds, Hakuba was the first to break the staring contest to scan over the room. It was almost time.

Hakuba glanced at his watch.

Only seven more seconds until heist started.

Six more seconds...

Five seconds...

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

An explosion of smoke and the unmistakable confident voice echoing through the room and that fathomless smirk.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!"

And so, the heist began, as did the unraveling of a concealed engima.

**A/N**

Sorry for the late update! It appears that I won't have as much free time to write and update chapters, so the next chapter will most likely be submitted later on. I hope that I've improved a bit, as I have a habit of switching scenes too quickly at times. Did I manage to fix that problem?

Also, I would like to see if anyone has anything they would like to see in this story. Ideas are appreciated!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

**Neko no Triad**

_Chapter Eleven_

Hakuba stood his ground and focused narrowed eyes on the incorrigible thief. This was it. He would either catch the thief or discover what Russell really was. The detective tensed and clenched a fist.

Failure was not an option.

The half-Brit quickly darted around towards the jewel, Russell smoothing following suit and latching onto Hakuba's shoulder. Several plumes of smoke and a few startled yells indicated that most of the task force had been either knocked out of action or at least slowed by the means of one of Kaitou KID's irritating traps.

Hakuba snorted slightly. Inspector Nakamori really was incompetent; hadn't the man learned something from the heists yet? If he had, the least he could do would be to direct the task force enough to keep them from being taken out so early.

The blond detective skidded to a stop when KID snatched the Moonlight's Angel and disappeared in puff of smoke, an arrogant smirk and his mocking voice commenting on Nakamori-keibu's repeated failure to capture him.

The obvious reaction from Inspector Nakamori was a sudden storm of cursing and a bout of stomping – he was basically throwing a five-year old tantrum.

An irritated meow shook Hakuba from his fascinated staring at the grown man's colorful vocabulary and out of place tantrum. He swung his head around and was met with Russell's monotonous stare.

The cat glared at him with a deadpan look that seemed to ask just when exactly he planned to start chasing the thief.

A set of simple of basic brain functions scrambled to arrange themselves, directing his dumbfounded state of mind.

Thief. Escaped. Catch.

Right.

Hakuba quickly complied and began dashing towards the roof.

Russell sighed and blandly observed the madly scrambling detective. Was this really necessary?

The not-kitten calmly leaped down from his perch on Hakuba's shoulder and quietly padded towards the roof as the panicked half-Brit almost literally threw the door open.

As the detective panted and surveyed the roof, searching for a certain white top-hat and cape, Russell gently pawed at a screen disguised to look like the wall.

The cloth rippled and was dramatically pulled away by the thief hiding behind it, disappearing as Kaitou KID stepped forward with a confident smirk.

"Kaitou KID!"

Hakuba's surprised shout made Russell wince slightly from the volume. The kitten flatly looked at the half-Brit with a deadpan stare.

Just state the obvious, why don't you?

Russell's snarky sarcasm was left unnoticed as Hakuba faced the internationally wanted thief with a determined stare. A finger shot up and focused on the the smug thief's monocle adorned face.

"YOU!" Hakuba shouted theatrically, leveling his finger in line with KID's smirk. With a flourish, the half-Brit began spouting out his usual rants of how he would catch KID and put him behind bars.

"–and I'll finally bring you to justi–"

"You know, it's rude to point, tantei-san." Kaitou KID interrupted Hakuba's rant with monotonous statement and a pointed stare. Hakuba spluttered angrily in response.

Meanwhile, Russell padded across the roof towards the door, the Moonlight's Angel in hand– er... mouth. The kitten paused for moment, looking uninterestedly at the two squabbling teens before continuing on his merry way towards the exit.

Hakuba's face was a purplish shade of red and, quite frankly, looked like he was about to blow a vein. As he prepared to lunge at the thief, KID suddenly interrupted with a crucial fact that had gone unnoticed.

"Hey! The Moonlight's Angel is gone!" KID turned to glare at Hakuba accusingly. "Where's that cat of yours?"

The half-Brit froze and felt the sudden urge to bang his head against the brick wall. He had completely forgotten his plan. Stupid force of habit.

Both the detective and thief slowly turned to face the stairwell.

Crap.

The cat bounced down the steps jubilantly, clutching the jewel tightly. Russell happily leaped off of the last step and pranced into one of the rooms of the building, passing under a direct beam of moonlight entering though a window.

The Moonlight's Angel glowed faintly.

Russell noticed a slight tingling sensation that quickly spread from his head down to his tail. It wasn't an uncomfortable feeling – in fact, it was slightly warm and reassuring. Immediately after, the warm prickly feeling suddenly began to grow stronger until he felt like he was being burned and pricked with needles all over. But strangely enough, it wasn't painful.

He squeaked, surprised when he suddenly lifted off of the ground and began glowing like some oversized version of Tinkerbell. This was definitely not normal!

Slightly put off, Russell scowled mentally. Of course the freaky, not-logical things had to happen to him. As the kitten became an unidentifiable mass of light that lengthened and morphed, his last thoughts were that he was going to make Hakuba's life hell after this was over.

_Especially_ since it was the half-Brit's fault that he was even here in the first place.

Kaitou KID huffed and glared at the detective across from him. How _dare_ tantei-san's cat steal something from him! He was _the_ Kaitou KID dammit!

The thief scowled and eyed the half-Brit thoughtfully, a mischievous grin stretching across his face. As Hakuba barreled towards the door and peered down the stairwell, KID strode behind the earnest detective and plainly punted Hakuba down the steps.

The thief observed the falling, cursing detective and allowed a vindictive smile to surface. He had _always_ wanted to do that! Seriously, the half-Brit was too stuck up and prissy for his own good. Plus, he deserved it. In a way, he was indirectly responsible for the theft of the jewel from the white-clad thief.

KID smirked and effectively descended the steps, reveling in Hakuba's pained screeching and heartfelt swearing.

Now where was that cat?

Hakuba screamed and tumbled down the steps, colliding face first with the floor. Muffled cursing drifted up the stairwell and reached a smug KID's ears. The detective slowly lifted his face out of the carpet and spat out some fuzz. He turned a murderous glare on the blasted thief and reached for something to throw at the smug thief's face.

KID squawked and promptly ducked under the swarm of random debris, wide-eyed and slightly disturbed. Was that a _sink_?

Below, an infuriated Hakuba flung whatever items were within reach with deadly accuracy at the frantically dodging thief. Red faced, the half-Brit detective colorfully swore and blindly grasped out for ammo, not caring that he was displacing various furniture and plumbing devices – which were museum property in general.

Completely blinded with rage, Hakuba failed to notice the one little wrench that had been thrown into his plans.

One moment, Hakuba was grasping at a nearby desk lamp in preparation to throw it across the room at KID's head.

Next thing he knew, a rather disoriented clone of Kaito (because KID just _had_ to be Kaito, all the (lack) of evidence pointed at it!) stumbled out and collided with the floor, having blundered over the various objects strewn across the room by the means of Hakuba's temper.

"...?"

KID made use of this distraction to escape in a puff of smoke. Never mind that he was also shocked too, but still...

It would be unseemly for the elusive Kaitou KID to be fazed by something as mundane as this. Well, that and if he had reacted, Hakuba would have more reason to pin the identity of KID of one Kaito Kuroba.

And he really didn't need anymore drama in his life.

Really.

**A/N**

Sorry for the late update; I apologize. Exams were a pain and I also work, so I've had considerably less time to write. Also, if you would like to contribute to the story, please feel free to. I'm running out of ideas...

To make up for the late update, please enjoy this little extra.

Omake:

The two doppelgangers stared at each other for a few minutes, unbelieving, the silence stretching out between them.

Kaito broke out into a wide grin.

"You look exactly like me! Well, besides the hair, but still!"

Kaito energetically wrapped an arm around Shinichi and happily rambled about his newly found twin and all the lovely chaos they could cause together.

Shinchi winced and blandly glanced at the arm thrown around his shoulders. He tentatively plucked Kaito's arm off of his shoulders with two fingers and then leaned as far away as he could from Kaito's octopus-like grasp.

"If I agree with you, will you stop touching me?"

Kaito briefly paused in his spout of excitement, seemingly stopping his rambling to think.

"Nope."

Shinichi scowled at Kaito and brooded silently in a corner.

Stupid overly cheerful thieving magicians. Just why exactly did he have to get the same pick of the gene pool as the internationally wanted thief, especially when he himself was a detective?

Karma must have really hated him.

This errant thought was immediately proved true when a excruciatingly cheerful Kaito Kuroba pounced on him, mussing his hair and dragging him off to Ekoda – however, not before adjusting the cranky detective's attire to fit. Now, one unhappy Shinichi Kudo was reluctantly following/being dragged around one bumbling idiot – also known as Kaito Kuroba.

Not only did they look like one another, Kaito had rectified the situation and made sure that they looked exactly like each other, save Shinichi murderous expression. That, however, was not easily fixed.

No matter how great a magician Kaito was, even he couldn't make certain cranky detectives look happy.

Well, at least without using inhumane methods. Like, per say, _botox_. He highly doubted that the detective would appreciate that. That and Shinichi would kick his face in. Several times. _Especially_ since it had taken much wheedling and not-so-subtle prodding just to pry the detective's name out of him. Sheesh, the guy really needed to loosen up. And Kaito was just the man for the job.


End file.
